Hello - I was curious if there was a way to protect a document (.doc
or .pdf) so that it can only be read by specific person. I am writing
a very sensitive e-book and was curious if I could curtail any attempt
by users to mass-distribute the document. Since any password
protection can easily be distributed along with emailing the document,
I was curious if there was an additional way. Any insight or
suggestions would be most appreicated. Thanks

TL

Hi there,

From what I understand, your concern also involves the possibility of
that specific person distributing the document.

There are two methods that I have seen used in the past by individuals
selling ebooks that were particularly effective.
First is, as the commentor suggested, having the document modified
into an executable file.  There are several slight variations of this,
including:
1. the reader can only open the document until a certain date
2. upon opening the file, the document will automatically be printed
and the file will be deleted
If you are interested in this approach, please let me know and I will
help you look for a programmer who can do this.

The second, and a more preferred approach, is by putting the document
on a server and restricting access to the server only to you and the
specific person's IP.  There are additional security measures that you
can put in place to prevent them from easily copying/pasting the text
(eg there are certain media file formats that prevent screen capture)

As you might've expected, there is no solution that will completely
guarantee the privacy of your document.  However, adding these
security measures will significantly decrease the spread of the
document.
If you would like additional help on pursuing either of the two
options, please let me know and I'd be glad to assist you further.

Cheers,
Tox-ga

Hello,

Maybe this is what you are seeking?
http://www.ebook-security.com/

Google search : protect e-book

You could zip or rar the document with a password. This will protect
it's data and most people have zip installed, and the document will
end up smaller!

Regards,

Arjen

Tom: You should try keeping your questions in one place, I think. What
if you get two good answers? Not that I care; I'm not a paid
researcher. :)

No. There is no good way. Have you considered something like
www.rentacoder.com and posting a job for a VB programmer who can take
your document and turn it into an executable file that expires? They
could also do that web notif you're looking for. Also consider Help
files software combined with an executable that'll "expire" the help
files after XX days. Many techy ebooks are created in help file
format. But...anybody can take screencaptures. Anybody can take many
file formats and snag the text out of them. Have you considered a
subscription to web pages? For instance, vBulletin forum software. We
created a way to sell Excel VBA training via the forum. The forum
software lets you sell a subscription to access "that" forum. You can
write it in HTML and everything. Again, this won't keep someone from
copying and pasting if they want your stuff! You can code html to
disable right-click copying, but they can still use screencapture if
they really want it.