Having a way to protect PDF files while still retaining their value is a must in the EBook business. You want to protect your eBook from Internet piracy, but you still want to allow some of the useful features of PDFs to be retained. Here is what you need to know to keep your PDFs from being stolen.

Copyright Your EBook before Publishing It

You should definitely have it clear at the front of your document that stealing your book is illegal. While it may slow down the publishing time, having a copyright on your document will certainly give you a legal edge if you find out it’s been stolen.

With the negative legal attention that torrent sites have been getting lately, they’re far less likely to allow it to be uploaded to begin with. Obviously, if they do publish it, they will be more than happy to oblige your request to remove it from circulation. Catching them, of course, means that you’re watching.

Protect Your EBook by Monitoring the Internet

Vigilance is necessary when protecting anything. This is no less the case when you protect your EBook. It’s always in your best interest to see if someone has uploaded your document to the Internet.

If you have the proper download protection in place, your need to do this is minimal. However, it might be courteous to let the torrent site owners know that they’re providing a copyrighted and inoperable document. After all, it’s inoperable because of your download protection, right?

Download Protection—the Core of Your Defense

The greatest form of protection you can get for your eBook is download protection. You can’t control how often your eBook is copied without locking it to your web page, but you can control what computers are licensed to open it. This is how you can stop pirating in its tracks.

An additional benefit of the right kind of download protection is that once a customer asks for a refund, you can deliver the refund without letting them keep your PDF. This is important, because refunds are often used as a way to steal eBooks. When the refund goes through, they lose their license to open the file. They join the other poor souls who want your eBook but won’t pay for it.

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