# PDFs, E-Books, and Pay to Download

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 23, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477 "2003-04-23T01:23:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![glarGH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/76d3ee/32.png) [@glarGH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glarGH)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477/1 "2003-04-23T01:23:14Z")

</div>

Good grief! My boss wants to know what it would take to set up an e-book for downloading… After the customer has paid and in such a way that there would be no copying, or other shennanigans ☹

Needless to say, my limited mental resources and general ignorance of this super high tech stuff has left me floundering. I can create the e-book, but what would it take to have it securely set up on our server? Do I need the Adobe Content Server Program?

Please help, good Dopers!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477/2 "2003-04-23T13:44:37Z")

</div>

Hi glar. In your shoes I would call Adobe and explain what I want. I have found them to be helpful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CastleAnthrax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@CastleAnthrax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastleAnthrax)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477/3 "2003-04-23T15:54:06Z")

</div>

I’ve got a book about to be published from here:  
[http://www.hennapage.com/henna/shop/bkshopindex.html](http://www.hennapage.com/henna/shop/bkshopindex.html)

You pay them and set up a password, which is good for three days. Then you can get to the pages you bought access to and get the books. They have them in either PDF or Word Docs.

HennaDancer

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477/4 "2003-04-23T17:03:54Z")

</div>

I have a book for download at [Embiid.net](http://www.embiid.net/books/books.asp?336009284&P=272&C=0). They pay **me** to publish it and set up everything.

Not really valid for this case, but I wanted to catch any authors who were fooled into believing that paying to have your novel published is a good idea.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bradwalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pdfs-e-books-and-pay-to-download/170477/5 "2003-04-23T17:55:17Z")

</div>

How do we prevent copying of an e-book? IIRC, it can’t be done, but if the book has a limited audience of readers, there’s a good chance that very few illegal copies will be made.