Vitrium Systems has developed a secure online distribution system for PDFs that allows the publisher to control who accesses the document and reports back on who reads it.Vitrium Systems Inc. a small startup company based in Vancouver, Canada is launching what it is calling a secure distribution and digital rights management system for Adobe PDF documents.
Called the Protectedpdf, the system is designed to enable publishers to distribute massive numbers of documents over the Internet while controlling who is authorized to open and read them, according to Narayan Sainaney, Vitrium's president and chief technology officer.
The system sets the stage for the controlled distribution of millions of protected documents over peer-to-peer networks allowing publishers to develop new revenue streams while guarding their copyrights and proprietary information, Sainaney said.
Protectedpdf, which is distributed through a hosted, on-demand web interface, requires readers to supply their credentials directly into the documents to obtain the access key that enables them to read the documents, he said.
No plug-ins or other software, besides the Adobe Acrobat Reader, need to be downloaded to access the documents, he explained.
Such a system also is potentially valuable to college textbook publishers that for years have been packaging CD-ROMs with their latest releases, Sainaney said. The publishers have no way of knowing how many of the buyers actually read and use the supplemental information on the CD-ROMs.
With Protectedpdf, the publishers could get a report on which students unlocked the CD-ROM files and what parts of it they read.
This allows the publishers to get a better idea of whether students actually use the CD-ROM and whether they are getting a good return on their investment in the supplemental material.
It also can provide additional lead information that gives the publishers another opportunity to market other textbooks or study tools to the students who use the CRM ROOM.
The distribution system allows document owners to exercise version control over distributed documents by setting an expiration date or simply distributing a new version that also shuts off access to the older version, Sainaney said.
The document owners can even revoke reader access on a user-by-user basis, he said.
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The security features also apply "the concept of digital shredding. Because if you destroy the key you have effectively shredded" the distributed documents, Sainaney said.
Protectedpdf has been developed to work with the Salesforce.com AppExchange platform and that company's customer relationship management system to archive data about who is reading and using the distributed documents.
A separate Protectedpdf.crm edition enables the collection and tracking of more detailed marketing data.
This version quantifies when and where documents are accessed and tracks how much time readers spend browsing through a document and what parts of the document they spend the most time with.
The edition solves the problem many companies have with white papers and other marketing data that they distribute, Sainaney said.
While they can track who visited there Web site and downloaded a particular white paper, they didn't have the ability to track everyone who actually received and opened the document.
The resulting marketing leads can be automatically stored in a Salesforce.com account for later analysis. Protectedpdf is integrated into the Salesforce.com interface as a custom tab to access the marketing leads as well as the other features of the online CRM system.
However, the system is not limited to Salesforce.com. Protectedpdf.crm will work with other online CRM systems.
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Vitrium is also developing a Protectedpdf.hs (high security) that fully encrypts the distributed PDF document to protect sensitive financial, medical or strategic business information.
The company is marketing this version, which is due for shipment in the 2006 first quarter, to banks and financial services companies and is actively talking to several banks, which Sainaney declined to identify.
Protectedpdf.hs works with 3DES or its successor AES encryption algorithms that are strong enough to be impervious to brute force decryption attacks, company officials said.
Vitrium is also developing Protectedpdf.es, which is a server-based enterprise edition for high-volume PDF publishing applications that customers prefer to install on their own premises.
This edition, Sainaney said, is ideal for applications where the customer wants close internal control of all its corporate information or client information.
It supports the distribution of thousands or even millions of document copies. It enables integration with custom content delivery systems and leverages existing large audiences or client bases, Sainaney explained.
Protectedpdf and Protectedpdf.crm are available for a free 60-day trial starting Nov. 1, company officials said. After the trial period ends, Vitrium will charge $29.99 for 5MB of active protectedpdf storage per month.
For Protectedpdf.crm, the charge is $99.95 per document per month with an unlimited number of sales leads.
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