We have a very specific use case for an application we're developing, where a user will be presented with a PDF document, which they can print off. However, we need to be able to restrict the PDF so it can only be printed off once. Does anyone know if there's a way to restrict the number of times a PDF can be printed.
I'm aware the PDF spec has lots of security features, but I've not found reference to anything like this before.
The Nemeio can also be set to change its layout automatically with the app you are using. The only heyboards that feature different actuation force for each finger I am aware of are the realforce series from topre. As well as map any key or combination of keys to a 128 character key sequence. I used this once. Prevent Windows 10 installer from using the preinstalled serial key without disabling UEFI. Ask Question. Because of this, I can only use the Professional editions of Windows (Home can't join domains). I bought Windows 10 Professional. If you reformat the machine again it will once more set itself up as Windows 10 Home instead of Windows. Change your Office product key. Set up mobile devices. This happens because each Install button is associated with a unique product key that can only be. Key can only be set once (if you try another key, exception will be thrown). The best place to call this method is from static constructor of your application's main class. Valid serial key has multiple groups of alphanumeric characters, separated with dashes.
pauldunloppauldunlop
12 Answers
Adobe use their Adobe Content Server to protect eBooks and PDFs along with Adobe Digital Editions (their free eBook and PDF reader) on the client side. This allows the distribution of PDFs with more flexible security options than the usual standalone PDF will allow. For example, documents can be time limited or allow only a certain number of pages to be printed.
This may well be a sledgehammer solution to your problem as I've no idea of Adobe's pricing for this product or whether is's practical for a small number of documents. It's used by the likes of the British Library (until recently anyway) for electronic inter-library loans which expire after 2 weeks and only allow the article to be printed once.
Even if you can do this, you can't stop user from makeing screenshot and then printing an image or something like that. If user can see data, you can not stop him from makeing a copy, so my advice is 'don't even try'. Make a noticeable warning that pdf should be printed only once and leave it like that, because if user want's to print it two times he/she will find the way.
del-boydel-boy
If you can print once, you can print an infinite number of times.
Consider a network printer: the raw data to be printed has to be sent to a remote embedded device, which your program would have no way of restricting, even if it somehow assumed ownership of the user's entire machine (which would already be considered extremly offensive; see the Sony rootkit scandal for the kind of reaction to expect).
How could you tell the device the user's machine is talking to is a real HP LaserJet, instead of something which pretends to be one (or, even simpler, pretends to be a remote spooler), but which saves the raw PCL/PS/whatever instead of printing it? Since that data is all that is needed to print the job, one would just have to replay it several times to a real printer to get several copies. You could also use a sniffer (as @dlamblin mentioned) and save the trouble of emulating the printer.
The Serial Key Can Be Set Only Once
You could think of forbidding network printers, but having only network printers in an office (not simple printers attached to a general-purpose PC, but large printers plugged directly into the Ethernet switch) is not that uncommon. Because of that, several of your users (how many would depend heavily on the target demographic) would not be able to print, which is not good PR.
And even USB is not immune (though it would need more technical knowledge and perhaps special hardware); there exist USB sniffers. And even without them, a usb printer 'gadget driver' on an embedded Linux device could be enough (note, however, that as of this writing I know of no usb printer gadget driver for Linux).
This is all assuming the program has somehow managed to obtain complete control of the user's machine. As the several failed attempts at copy protection show, this is easier said than done. How can you know that the printer driver you are using is just an uncommon version of the printer driver for a popular brand of printers, and not a hacked version to save the stream to the disk? How can you know there is no driver somewhere in the printing stack logging all the USB transactions to disk? And how can you differentiate a normal user of virtual machines from someone using them to intercept the communication with the USB devices?
All that said, you do not need to go that far. Most people, even if they have the technical know-how, will not attempt to bypass even the weakest attempts at preventing duplicate printing you make. In fact, I would not be surprised if most users would voluntarily not print more than once if told the file must be printed only once (but then there would be more cases of people accidentally printing twice). So, make a simple program which prints once and then erases the original data. Warn the user that the data will be erased after being printed once. And accept that some people will print more times than you allowed, and that some people will print less times than you allowed (power glitches, defective printers, misconfigured systems, or the dreaded PC LOAD LETTER can all cause the printing to fail). Be prepared for that.
For people who print more times than allowed, just accept the losses, the same way a physical shop has to accept that a fraction of its stock will be accidentally damaged or lost in some way. Have some way of finding the biggest abusers and dealing with them (the legal system seems to be a popular choice).
For people who print less times than allowed, something like phone support where the user can request a new copy would be an option (it works for Microsoft, right?). Of course, some people will abuse this, but see the previous paragraph.
I know that many event tickets delivered as PDF don't worry very much about this. Instead, they assert very strongly that the venue will be scanning the barcodes, and that only the first copy of a given ticket will be allowed through the door. They also have a tendency to print the purchaser's name on the ticket, making it possible to ask for ID at the door as well.
Fundamentally, I don't think it is possible to make a print-once PDF file. And even if it was, I'd suspect that the customer relations cost from print problems and bad word-of-mouth would cost more that its worth.
TurboTax (a US Federal and State income tax preparation tool for the non-US readers) tried something similar a couple of years ago. They decided that it must only be possible to install the program once with printing enabled, which was enforced by an activation code from their server. It turns out that a significant number of their customers were in the habit of doing taxes at home, but installing a temporary copy at their office to take advantage of the available office printers. There was also a loud complaint from people concerned that about being able to reinstall that year's software later to fix the return if an audit revealed an issue.
The complaints were loud enough that no subsequent version has had these restrictions.
RBerteigRBerteig
The idea that a software program can control that a user only prints something once is a flawed idea. Think about paper jam - just because some application or operating system successfully have sent of a printing job to the printer does not guarantie that the user gets a copy. So what should the user do then?
Or what about the printer being configured to print X copies of each sheet? What about scanners or photo copiers?
And finally, while there obviously is no benefits from the user's point of view for such an anti-feature, I have absolutely no idea what the benefit should be for your company. Could you please explain what excatly what the benefit for doing such a thing is?
I cannot find any Adobe PDF feature that counts the number of times the document is printed. I only find disabling all printing. This makes sense when taken with the following in view:
If I were the PDF pirate you fear, and you created this elusive print-once PDF, I would merely send it to my printer, once.
Whereupon:
On a Mac I would choose to preview the printout before clicking 'print', and save the PDF preview it generates.
On a PC I would ask the printer driver to also spool the job to a file.
Or on either I would choose a print-to-file driver, many of which are free.
And if none of these above options were available to me, I could ask my printer driver for many models to also spool the PostScript to disk first, or in dire cases, sniff the network traffic to the printer off of the network. It's generally not authenticated or encrypted. The PostScript could even be distilled back to PDF if need be.
Edit: Even with the java printing applet that Pitney-Bowes uses to print postage, which seems to disable the preview option I've saved the resulting print job for reprinting. But I don't use this option any more because it simply cannot seem to print correctly on any kind of paper size, it's always printing the bar code off the margins of the page, even when I play it straight with the print-once intent.
The scenario we have is related to voucher/coupon printing. Basically, the client needs to ensure a user only has one copy of the voucher. Having validation at redemption (in store) isn't an option, so it needs to be at the time of printing the voucher.
Did you consider personalising the prints, requiring some id (and maybe some signature) when using the print in a store, and leave it up to the sales agreement that only a single copy is to be used? Then you'd need some final processing (at some later time), to register what vouchers have been used multiple times, and (threaten to) bill the customer for that... (This could even be an additional thing, next to trying to limit the number of prints.)
Note that not everyone has a quality printer. Some scans or photocopies may look better than some original printouts.
Also, like @RBerteig already noted, some customers may not even have a printer at all, or may have run out of ink. How would they print at some neighbour or at work when your solution needs additional software, like (the horrible, in my opinion) Adobe Digital Editions? Extending on that: what will the electronic voucher be like? I think you'll be implementing some online validation at redemption in the next release, for those showing you some barcode on their smartphone rather than some paper voucher.
We're aware the whole concept has fundamental flaws, but we basically want to make it as hard as possible for average Joe to print off more than 1. [..] Problem is, a competitor has produced a number of solutions, through ActiveX controls, and dedicated apps you have to install to handle all this, we're just trying to find a more elegant solution.
Ok, it's clear that you will eventually implement some solution that will not be very secure. I guess you'll have some written statement for the client about the risks. I suggest that in that written statement you also show the customer how easily that competitor's solution can be used to print multiple copies.
We've done things like this with watermarks. The PDF always has a watermark except for some given 'event' that will allow the user to print (like payment in our situation). Then we re-render the PDF without the watermark.
Not exactly what you're after, but perhaps the watermark notion could be helpful?
You can prevent users from print a PDF form. You can specify whether the form can be printed, printed with minimal resolution, or printed with a high resolution output.
1.Select File > Form Properties.
2.Click the PDF Security tab.
3.In the Permissions area, select Use A Password To Restrict Printing And Editing Of The Document And Its Security Settings.
The Serial Key Can Be Set Only Once Lyrics
4.In the Printing Allowed list, select one of the following options:
How about distributing access to a web site with a simple log-in requirement that contains the voucher. Print the voucher from the webpage.
Set the site up so that the user can log-in only once.
You might be able to set the site up so that the voucher does NOT show on the web page - though I do not know how to do this. If you can do this, you prevent the user from downloading and making multiple prints.
If something goes wrong with the log-in, provide a legitimate, but not too easy, way to get another log-in.
Of course, you could always mail a physical voucher to the recipient.
If you are concerned about photocopies, there are ways to prevent that - look a medical prescriptions that use 'secure paper' for an example.
KijeKije
I am not a techie but it might be worth your while to check out the 'Globe and Mail' (Canada) website. This is a newspaper which charges for the number of print copies -anything from one to hundred. You may be able to adapt whatever they have done to your own problem. The reason I am looking at this site is because i am about to launch a website and want to protect my content. Good Luck
Bruce LynnBruce Lynn
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Serial number from an identity document
Serial number on a semi-automatic pistol
Serial number of a laptop computer
A serial number is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item, to uniquely identify it.
Serial numbers need not be strictly numerical. They may contain letters and other typographical symbols, or may consist entirely of a characterstring.
1Applications of serial numbering
2Other uses of the term
Applications of serial numbering[edit]
Serial numbers identify otherwise identical individual units with many, obvious uses. Serial numbers are a deterrent against theft and counterfeit products, as they can be recorded, and stolen or otherwise irregular goods can be identified. Some items with serial numbers are automobiles, electronics, and appliances. Banknotes and other transferable documents of value bear serial numbers to assist in preventing counterfeiting and tracing stolen ones.
They are valuable in quality control, as once a defect is found in the production of a particular batch of product, the serial number will identify which units are affected.
Serial numbers for intangible goods[edit]
Serial numbers may be used to identify individual physical or intangible objects (for example computer software or the right to play an online multiplayer game). The purpose and application is different. A software serial number, otherwise called product key, is usually not embedded in the software, but is assigned to a specific user with a right to use the software. The software will function only if a potential user enters a valid product code. The vast majority of possible codes are rejected by the software. If an unauthorised user is found to be using the software, the legitimate user can be identified from the code. It is usually not impossible, however, for an unauthorised user to create a valid but unallocated code either by trying many possible codes, or reverse engineering the software; use of unallocated codes can be monitored if the software makes an Internet connection.
Other uses of the term[edit]
The term serial number is sometimes used for codes which do not identify a single instance of something. For example, the International Standard Serial Number or ISSN used on magazines, journals and other periodicals, an equivalent to the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) applied to books, is assigned to each periodical. It takes its name from the library science use of the word serial to mean a periodical.
Certificates and certificate authorities (CA) are necessary for widespread use of cryptography. These depend on applying mathematically rigorous serial numbers and serial number arithmetic, again not identifying a single instance of the content being protected.
The RAF serial (XG900) on the Short SC.1
Military and government use[edit]
The term serial number is also used in military formations as an alternative to the expression service number.[citation needed] In air forces, the serial number is used to uniquely identify individual aircraft and is usually painted on both sides of the aircraft fuselage, most often in the tail area, although in some cases the serial is painted on the side of the aircraft's fin/rudder(s). Because of this, the serial number is sometimes called a tail number.
In the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) the individual serial takes the form of two letters followed by three digits, e.g., BT308—the prototype Avro Lancaster, or XS903—an English Electric Lightning F.6 at one time based at RAF Binbrook.[1] During the Second World War RAF aircraft that were secret or carrying secret equipment had '/G' (for 'Guard') appended to the serial, denoting that the aircraft was to have an armed guard at all times while on the ground, e.g., LZ548/G—the prototype de Havilland Vampirejetfighter, or ML926/G—a de Havilland Mosquito XVI experimentally fitted with H2S radar. Prior to this scheme the RAF, and predecessor Royal Flying Corps (RFC), utilised a serial consisting of a letter followed by four figures, e.g., D8096—a Bristol F.2 Fighter currently owned by the Shuttleworth Collection, or K5054—the prototype Supermarine Spitfire. The serial number follows the aircraft throughout its period of service.
In 2009, the U.S. FDA published draft guidance for the pharmaceutical industry to use serial numbers on prescription drug packages.[2] This measure is intended to enhance the traceability of drugs and to help prevent counterfeiting.
Serial number arithmetic[edit]
Serial numbers are often used in network protocols. However, most sequence numbers in computer protocols are limited to a fixed number of bits, and will wrap around after a sufficiently many numbers have been allocated. Thus, recently allocated serial numbers may duplicate very old serial numbers, but not other recently allocated serial numbers. To avoid ambiguity with these non-unique numbers, RFC1982 'Serial Number Arithmetic', defines special rules for calculations involving these kinds of serial numbers.
Lollipop sequence number spaces are a more recent and sophisticated scheme for dealing with finite-sized sequence numbers in protocols.
See also[edit]
SQL (serial identifiers for databases)
Sources[edit]
Elz, R., and R. Bush, RFC1982 'Serial Number Arithmetic', Network Working Group, August 1996.
Plummer, William W. 'Sequence Number Arithmetic'. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc., 21 September 1978.
^Food and Drug Administration. 'Guidance for Industry Standards for Securing the Drug Supply Chain - Standardized Numerical Identification for Prescription Drug Packages Draft Guidance'. Archived from the original on 11 May 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Serial_number&oldid=911978705'