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Remove PDF passwords using a virtual PDF printer
Authored by: b00le on Nov 15, '05 07:15:16AM
you need to have the password in the first place to open and print the file.
Not necessarily - we produce protected pdf files with permission set so that anyone can open or print them, but not alter or copy the contents - some settings let you open a file but not print it, so if this works (I haven't tried it yet), you will definitely have annoyed someone.

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Remove PDF passwords using a virtual PDF printer
Authored by: ccase on Nov 15, '05 09:47:13AM
you will definitely have annoyed someone

I hope so. These documents have annoyed me enough times.

I'd love to hear a defense of using password protection to produce read-only documents that made any sense at all.

The password protection serves no legitimate purpose. If I wanted to produce a PDF that included your corporate pledge of fealty to Osama bin Laden, or noted your founder's enthusiasm for kinky sex, I could do it easily enough, as could anyone else. The password protection only serves to stiffle the flow of information for legitimate purposes.



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Remove PDF passwords using a virtual PDF printer
Authored by: hamarkus on Nov 15, '05 04:38:55PM

As much as I hate password protected pdf files (and will do everything to remove this protection), password protection is there to prevent people from forging documents.

But in the end, anything that can be displayed on screen or printed can be copied at the maximum print or display resolution.



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Remove PDF passwords using a virtual PDF printer
Authored by: rameeti on Nov 25, '05 07:15:14AM

As you are looking for a reason for passwording the changing of a document, how about this:

My company takes a somewhat generic form that our industry uses and spends a good deal of time turning that 'print it out, fill it in form' into a real form with calculations that allow the user to fill it out and submit the info online to us. We then put our header on the top. We've done this to hundreds of our industry standard forms. We'd like to have that business advantage of our consumers being able to use our forms for submission to us. Should it fair that our competitors could just wipe our logo and name off of the form and then post the fillable form to their website for their customers?



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Remove PDF passwords using a virtual PDF printer
Authored by: goodguy on Jan 02, '06 08:12:33AM

i'm sorry for your company if it tries to protect something using pdf-passwords. darwin's theory tells us that you deserve to have your work stolen.

what about creating a web-page for these forms and then doing the calculations or whatever on the server? that would hardly be more work for you, but add a *much* higher layer of protection.

pdf-passwords are just a pain in the ass that annoy but do not protect at all. supporting or using them should be a legal offence ;-)



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