At the risk of stating the obvious, not all PDF documents are supposed to last forever.
It would be nice if books, fiction or non-fiction, had that ability. But many historic works have been lost for all time because the library they were in was burned down (this problem still goes on today). Read more
Selling PDF books, files and documents online has obvious advantages. You can cut costs (no more printed copies to produce and distribute), help save the environment (no more paper), save time (distribution handled automatically by an ecommerce system), and reach new markets. The downside however is how do you protect electronic copies which by their very nature can be easily re-produced? Read more
There are many DRM confidential content control systems available that appear, at least from the literature of their suppliers, to be able to apply DRM content control to many different types of files. Read more
In the physical (paper) world Copyright has gotten well established as to what the ground rules are when dealing with books. You sell a book. Well and good. In the USA and the EU (under different but similar law) the purchaser can sell the book on to a third party when they have finished with it.
Now the clincher to the deal is that they cannot retain a copy and continue to use it. The simple control is that the purchaser will not pay unless they get the one and only paper copy (first edition, hardbound, paperback, signed copy, with cover, and so on) at the bargain price. Read more
Thank goodness the DRM industry does not take itself too seriously. There’s nothing worse than a group of sanctimonious zealots letting off steam about control of books that you can or can’t read.
Or is there? Read more