Hi,

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002, Roberto Hernandez wrote:
> Encrypted:    yes (print:yes copy:no change:no addNotes:no)
> Linearized:   yes
> I'm not sure what linearizing does to PDFs, but I think it would be
> pretty cool to encrypt PDF files so they can only be printed.

A few thing to consider:
- Encrypted PDF cannot be read by some free software viewer without adding
an external patch and recompile, I believe for some stupid patent or
cryptographic software exportation stuff.

- Encrypted PDF is useless to 'protect' anything if the reader wants to do
whatever please her to do. That's as stupid as any scheme to encrypt music
or such. Either you seriously crypt your document and nobody can decrypt
it, either they can access it it. But if it can be print, that means
that it has to be decrypted before, right ? So anything can also be done
with the document, if a given software doesnt do it, it's jhust because it
'choose' to honor this functionnality.
Real world example: I got once an encrypted pdf that didnt wanted to
'print', I already had to recompile xpdf to patch with the crypt
functionality. I just modified 2 lines in the source code (just commented
out something like 'if document says that it dont want to print, then
dont print') and I could print the pages I wanted.

Conclusion: encrypting pdf is anoying ppl wanting to access your document
without adding any 'protection'... Anyway, if you want to pay 500$ for
this, why not...

        Yannick


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