[scribus] Security on exported PDF

[Rolf-Werner Eilert]

Am 28.01.19 um 03:42 schrieb John Jason Jordan:
> I have a book that I'm about to lay out, preferably with Scribus, and
> it will be published in PDF format. (The first time I've ever done
> that.) Sales will be over the internet, so I'm trying to figure out how
> I can stop piracy.
> 
> I started by creating a one-page dummy .sla file with just a text frame
> filled with Lorem ipsum. I exported it as PDF and on the Security tab I
> deselected all the options, including no copying and pasting, and
> exported the file. Then I opened the file in Evince (Xubuntu 16.04),
> which required the password that I set to open the file, but once the
> file was open I could copy and paste the text.
> 
> I think I don't understand what I'm doing here. And I may be going
> about this the wrong way. Perhaps there is a completely different
> approach. After all, if I require a password to open the file a pirate
> can just send the recipient the password along with the PDF.
> 
> I'm scratching my head here. I need some suggestions!
> 

My first thought was, doesn't the Adobe suite of PDF programs offer such 
a way? You might be able to load the Scribus PDF into this beast and 
have it crypted against some key.

The obvious drawback is that you must go sure that the Linux PDF viewers 
are able to decrypt it. The next point is, do the viewers keep the user 
from copy-paste the text "because it is locked"?

I think, from a certain point no author can be sure that the text is 
copied in some way, otherwise the reader would not be able to read it. 
We had this discussion in our photo forum the other day. When you try to 
offer photos in a way that keeps people from screen-grabbing, you end up 
like with this HDMI locking chain. The same problem here.

Regards
Rolf