limiting the number of copies printable from a PDF

[david_deschamps@adobeforums.com]

Is it possible to set a limit on the number of copies printable from a PDF file for proprietary material?

[david_deschamps@adobeforums.com]

p.s. I have Acrobat 6.0 Pro

[david_deschamps@adobeforums.com]

p. p. s. THANKS

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

You cannot do this with any version of Acrobat.

You'd need to use a MUCH more expensive product like Adobe LifeCycle Policy Server to control document access. These server solutions are designed for large enterprise operations and are priced accordingly. (If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it!)

[MarkATS@adobeforums.com]

Printed by one person? Printed by everyone who has the PDF?

[david_deschamps@adobeforums.com]

Oh, well! Thanks. Is it that hard to do that it would be so expensive? It's for music that I've written which I would like to sell as PDFs but want to protect my copyright. In other words, for a piece of music that twenty people are going to sing, I would like to charge a certain amount for each copy printed and then have them not be able to print more copies to protect my intellectual (in theory, anyway) property.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

It's a pretty complex task. Someone, somewhere, has to keep track of
whether a file has been printed, so a web server has to run 24/7 and
remember this forever.

Don't forget that if you allow one copy to be printed it can be
photocopied (or in some cases the printer allows reprints
automatically). So you may not want to go to a lot of trouble and
expense on the assumption that your PDF file's users don't have a
photocopier.

Also, printouts often fail, so you must be prepared to give tech
support and allow extra copies when this happens (or sacrifice a lot
of goodwill).

Aandi Inston

[pjonesCET@adobeforums.com]

I'd recomend that you have sheet Music (on paper) or on (CD?DVD) and sell the copies. ON the CD/DVD you could put them on CD/DVD-R so that they couldn't be duplicated. But still even that way someone would have the ability to print. So there is no real guarantee other than the honesty of your patrons.