revoke individual user access to single, multiple, or all documents
revoke access automatically after a number of views and/or prints
Watermark
Add dynamic watermarks to viewed and or printed pages. Dynamic variables (date/time, user name, company name, email address) are replaced with actual user and system data when the protected PDF document is displayed and/or printed.
You only have to protect a document once in order to customize it for multiple users.
“Safeguard PDF Security has provided us with a very workable solution to the need to share certain information in a secure fashion. We would be happy to recommend Locklizard to any company needing a flexible way to secure PDF files.”
The roles of information access control in DRM security
DRM technology is actually a refinement of existing access control technologies that allows a much more granular and appropriate approach to protecting access to and use of information in a widely distributed environment, such as the Internet, than traditional methods.
DRM is used along with encryption and licensing controls to control access to and use of documents and files, providing persistent protection of information regardless of where it is stored.
DRM security historical development
Now I know that people tend to follow Henry Ford and say that “History is bunk”, but reality is that if you don’t understand how it is we got here then you are faced with having to invent something totally new, and whilst the IT industry has specialised in doing that, the magic is wearing thin and customers are increasingly unwilling to jump into a whole new technology when they have not even begun to eat what is on their plate right now.
So a bit of history.
The DRM agenda has been both set and dominated by the music and film industries for as long as CD technology has been available (arguably since 1978 when Philips released the first video disk player, although the standard was not sorted out until 1981 and mass sales only started in 1983).
The reason those industries were interested was because their anticipated profits had been burned by the cassette tape recorder (readily available in the mid 1960s) that made copying music and sound trivial (although, from my memory, the sound quality left only hi-fidelity to be desired).
Personal Computers of the IBM type had only just been invented (1981) and that type of computing did not become available to the mass markets until around 1985 with the Amstrad, Sinclair, Apple and so on joining the fray. For the new boys on the block, the wonder was to make it work at all – certainly not to worry about some theoretical loss of revenue from failing to collect the royalty on a song or an orchestral work.
So DRM security technology was relegated in the minds of both consumers and IT designers as some strange delusion of the music industry that was really all about increasing profits from record, and later film sales.
And that is where the misunderstanding began.
Information access controls and DRM security
If you look back at information access control mechanisms in the days of the mainframe computer you just had a few: read (includes copy), write (includes create), append (includes add to and alter), execute, delete. That was because there was an administrator on the mainframe who probably knew who you actually were, set up your identity and password and ‘decided’ which rights you had over which files.
Now that was fine at the time, because life was simple, very few people actually got to be able to get to anything and the systems programmers could always fix the errors because mainly nobody except them had serious access to anything at all. The only ‘stuff’ to leave the mainframe would likely be printed on paper, or maybe on a magnetic tape, and both were controlled physically. Your chance of making copies was about the same as winning the lottery.
Enter the personal computer era.
The real selling point of the PC was the fact that the user was king – they did not have to bow and scrape with the systems programmers, they could do anything they wanted. In fact, each one became the equivalent of a systems programmer.
And PC users had just the same information access controls as were on the mainframe, with all the power that went with them. And basically nothing has changed since. The PC is bigger, faster, more interconnected than we ever thought possible in 1981, but the development of access controls has not kept pace with everything else.
And finally governments, industry and users are waking up to the fact that they need more powers to control how information is disseminated and used. Because the original access controls just don’t cut it. In some cases they want to allow recipients to read information, but not to be able to copy it. In some cases they want to limit the ability to copy, perhaps allowing only printed copies and not digital. In other cases they may want to be able to track if people are re-distributing their information in a printed form.
If you were to think of it as updating information access controls you might get a table something like the following:
Original Control
Added controls
Read
Read but not copy
Read for a number of times
Read and make printed copy(ies)
Read showing ownership
Print showing ownership
Write
Write but not as original author
Append
Allow original to be altered
Allow additions that are shown separately
Delete
Write but not as original author
Execute
Execute if on an authorised location
Now these additional information access controls are identical to those used to achieve DRM management of information. The only addition needed, is a more sophisticated method for being able to check that the entity (person, machine and so on) using the information has a tick in the box for the control(s) for them and that it is valid.
Now that’s not much of a step on from ticket granting systems that were designed and developed using a technology called Kerberos, which started back in the late 1980s.
So DRM security technology, rather than being some evil regime, turns out to be an extension of access control technologies that were developed back in the 1960s, and are just starting to be understood as necessary extensions in order to address the now extended controls required for Internet based computing.
Why Locklizard for DRM Security?
Total Document Protection with US Gov Strength encryption
Locklizard takes your document protection seriously.
Our DRM Security products offer a secure alternative to FileCloud and other document DRM products. They enable you to share and sell documents securely without insecure passwords or plug-ins, and enforce access, location, expiry, and usage controls. Revoke documents at any time regardless of where they are located.
Our DRM technology ensures your documents remain persistently protected by the use of encryption, DRM and licensing controls, and device & location locking.
We needed to deliver e-book versions of our handbooks while not compromising on security and digital rights. Safeguard PDF security is easy to use and intuitive.
The implementation was painless and we now have a greener, more secure way of distributing training manuals.
Locklizard’s PDF protection is exactly as described – the features are highly effective and I would give it 5 stars.
I would recommend Locklizard to others - their security is simple to use and fit for purpose. It meets common needs of businesses who have information they want to protect.
We would be happy to recommend Locklizard to any company needing a flexible way to secure PDF files.
Safeguard PDF Security has provided us with a very workable solution for sharing of information in a secure fashion. The support has been excellent and very accommodating.
We can cut accounts for a user five minutes before his class starts and he is ready to go. Happy smiling customer, while we still have security and personalized watermarking.
I have immense respect for the product and Locklizard provide great customer satisfaction and service.
We would recommend Safeguard to other companies for its security, cost and ease of use. It does what we expected it to do and more.
Ease of use is a bonus and the implementation was very easy. The product manual is excellent and Locklizard staff are very accommodating.
We sell a highly valued educational product in an open and competitive market so it was important to ensure we had effective security to protect our digital rights.
We highly recommend Locklizard - a professional company with a competitive and professional PDF Security product.
We would absolutely recommend both Locklizard as a company, and Safeguard PDF Security. It has transformed our study materials to the next level.
Not only did this increase sales, but we also believe that it has increased our customers’ ability to learn, which is even more important!
We would recommend Locklizard Safeguard to other companies that need to protect PDF reports. Customers have found the process of accessing the protected documents to be seamless.
Implementation was easy and technical support has been very responsive to requests for help.
Our company would without reservation recommend Locklizard. Their document DRM software opens up delivery of our new products in a timely fashion while knowing that the content will remain secure.
The return on investment to our company has been immediately evident.
We use Safeguard to make sure that documents cannot be opened outside our local network or from a unauthorized computer in order to copy or print the documents.
It is the most feature rich, affordable, & simple to use PDF security product on the market.
Safeguard PDF Security is simple to administer and meets our needs, consistently delivering secured manuals to our customers with ease.
Return on investment has been elimination of many man hours, printing resources and postage – it is estimated that costs decreased by 50% or more.
We would really recommend Safeguard PDF Security to every publishing company for managing ePubs or e-books securely. It is easy to secure PDF files and simple to distribute them to our authorized customers only.
Locklizard also provides a good customer support experience.
The ROI for us is incalculable. We have the security of knowing that our proprietary documents are secure. This is the entire value of our company.
I would most certainly recommend your PDF security product and already have. The ease of implementation was surprising.
We can now sell our manuals without the need to print them first, saving time, money and helping safeguard the environment.
We would recommend Safeguard PDF DRM – it is the perfect solution to sell and send e-documents securely whilst making sure someone cannot copy them.
We would recommend Locklizard to other companies without hesitation.
Their PDF DRM products provide a manageable, cost effective way to protect intellectual investment and they are always looking for ways to improve them. Moreover, their staff provide an excellent level of support.
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DRM security historical development
Information access controls and DRM security
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