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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hudarklord" data-source="post: 815071" data-attributes="member: 10932">I actually have a substantially greater understanding of Title 17 and the OGL than my initial post must have conveyed.  If you read my original post you'll see that I mentioned two options, so I clearly understand that there are options and, in general, I can think of what they are.However, I've also seen Hellhound's posts on PDF security and access to OGC materials.  I don't entirely agree that locking down the PDF from text extraction stops people from using your OGC.  In fact, there are an enormous number of print-only products that are Section 15'd all the time.  However, with his comments in mind I posted my question.I've asked a very specific question.  I can certainly protect the formatting of the document using the OGL's section 1(e) and declaring the format as Product Identity.  I could also de facto do it by including a light watermark and border that is artwork and PI my artwork instead.I'm asking whether people think either of these is:a) worthwhile ORb) necessaryfor protecting the profession version of my materials.Here's my take.  My father always said "locks keep out honest people".  He always said that if you had a locked window with a million in cash on the other side of it, the honest person walking by might be tempted to steal with it, but would relent when he realized he'd have to break the locked window open to get the cash.  The real thief will just grab a brick, break the window, and run with the money.I'm wondering just how high of a barrier is useful to remind people that they shouldn't be running off a dozen copies and circulating it, but fully well realize that pure electronic piracy and distribution of the PDF will make piracy trivial for anyone who is dedicated to the cause.I also want to make sure I have SOMETHING PI'd about the document (border art, text formatting, etc.) to make sure that my PDF sales don't take a nose dive after the first person gets a copy of it since an enormous amount of my product will be OGC.I'm mostly trying to ascertain what is:a) effective in stopping John Doe pretty honest guy from running off a dozen copiesb) least annoying to the end userc) effective in distinguishing my product from the OGC that people can extract from itMongoose Publishing in some of their works alternates between a watermark, an art border, or block art to make it obvious when something is a copy of their original book.So, after hearing Hellhound caution against locking the PDF down and after seeing people whine about Mongoose's watermarks I figured I'd take a poll on the options people are employing to keep their PDF sales alive while minimizing end user annoyance.Hopefully that clarifies things.My personal preference is to PI the format.Thanks ever so much,Lee</blockquote>

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