How to handle those people who "steal" my work

[Blessed]

I think this is pretty much a lost cause - but someone might have an idea I haven't thought of - so here goes!

I create several event specific info dump sheets for one of my clients. She owns three franchises of a Children's Consignment Sale event and she's very successful. As such other franchisee's constantly look at what she's doing so that they can copy it.

A few of them ask if they can use whatever we've created - this is ethical and good. My client always directs them to me - because we put our specific event name and etc... on these dump sheets so those people do need the sheets altered.

I'm happy to make the changes for these potential new clients, for a small fee.

After hearing about the very reasonable fee, at least 75% of them simply pull the PDF files off of my clients website and re-create the documents in Microsoft Word, Paint, Publisher... whatever they have and they end up looking either decent or pretty awful, depending on the skill level of the user... And at this point, my idea of a "what we accept sheet" or whatever else they like is being used without my consent. We have no recourse through the Franchise because they expect all the franchisee's to share and share alike and/or to use their corporate contracted designer exclusively. Since I'm not her, they won't protect the value of my work.

I've thought about locking the PDF's so that they can't be printed - but we want our consignors and shoppers to print the files, so that doesn't work. I outline all the fonts on the uploaded PDF's so that everything has to be retyped. But outside of that I don't know any other way to protect my work from these people who are pirating my ideas...

Any thoughts? Including get over it... :D

[Wozcreative]

You can always contact THEIR hosting company and prove that you created the work and they copied you. They would then take or force to take it down.

[Harold Mansfield]

I've thought about locking the PDF's so that they can't be printed - but we want our consignors and shoppers to print the files, so that doesn't work. I outline all the fonts on the uploaded PDF's so that everything has to be retyped. But outside of that I don't know any other way to protect my work from these people who are pirating my ideas...

Any thoughts? Including get over it... :D


You can lock a PDF so that it can't be edited or changed in anyway. At least that way if they steal it, they still have to do the work of recreating it. And if they're stealing templates in the first place they likely don't have the skills.

If you can't lock it because people need to be able to edit it, you can at least put your digital signature and information in the document. Most people have no idea how to do that and won't think to remove it. So if they reuse it, it will show to others that they stole it.

You can also watermark each page with either yours or your clients logos. That makes copying and reusing pretty much worthless.

Other than that, not much you can do about it since you're letting the general public download them without any qualifiers or info capture.

[billbenson]

You can lock a PDF so that it can't be edited or changed in anyway. At least that way if they steal it, they still have to do the work of recreating it. And if they're stealing templates in the first place they likely don't have the skills.

If you can't lock it because people need to be able to edit it, you can at least put your digital signature and information in the document. Most people have no idea how to do that and won't think to remove it. So if they reuse it, it will show to others that they stole it.

You can also watermark each page with either yours or your clients logos. That makes copying and reusing pretty much worthless.

Other than that, not much you can do about it since you're letting the general public download them without any qualifiers or info capture.

That doesn't stop people from doing a screen shot and editing it, although the quality will certainly go down.

[Blessed]

You can lock a PDF so that it can't be edited or changed in anyway. At least that way if they steal it, they still have to do the work of recreating it. And if they're stealing templates in the first place they likely don't have the skills.

If you can't lock it because people need to be able to edit it, you can at least put your digital signature and information in the document. Most people have no idea how to do that and won't think to remove it. So if they reuse it, it will show to others that they stole it.

You can also watermark each page with either yours or your clients logos. That makes copying and reusing pretty much worthless.

Other than that, not much you can do about it since you're letting the general public download them without any qualifiers or info capture.

I like the digital signature idea, I had not thought of that yet. And I think I will try locking and seeing if the customers who are supposed to be using the files complain!

All of these files have the clients logo on it - since it's a Franchise and other franchisee's are using these files that part doesn't help much unfortunately.

Thanks for your input!

[Blessed]

That doesn't stop people from doing a screen shot and editing it, although the quality will certainly go down.

That's one of my issues (aside from being cheated out of payment!) Many people end up knowing I created the original file, although they don't always see that original file, just the recreated and lower quality item.

[vangogh]

If you tell these people the PDFs are protected by copyright and let them know and hint and legal action, most will probably stop. Some one won't, but I'd bet plenty would. The question is, is any of that really worth it to you?

As reasonable as the fee is, maybe it's priced too high for the market. You could try lowering the reasonable fee and see what happens. Does it result in any more work or is the situation the same and you're just making less.

Could you set up the PDF in a way that lets other's edit it easily? If so you could sell it as a product. You could drop the costs significantly and point people to where they could buy it. In that case you might set the PDF to be uneditable without a password and what you're really selling is the password to open the file.

One last option is not to worry about it and give the PDF away freely on your site. Point anyone who asks about it to a page on your site, where the PDF could be downloaded. You could even offer tips for how to edit it along with information about your own services. Instead of worrying about people copying the file, let them and us it as a marketing opportunity to let more potential clients know about you and what you can do?

[Harold Mansfield]

That doesn't stop people from doing a screen shot and editing it, although the quality will certainly go down.
No way they can do that. All a screenshot does is give you an image. You can't convert that image into an editable document. You would have to eyeball it and recreate it in Word or a PDF editor.

[billbenson]

No way they can do that. All a screenshot does is give you an image. You can't convert that image into an editable document. You would have to eyeball it and recreate it in Word or a PDF editor.

My bad, I thought Jenn was talking about images. Just reread the original post and I was mistaken.

[Brian Altenhofel]

No way they can do that. All a screenshot does is give you an image. You can't convert that image into an editable document. You would have to eyeball it and recreate it in Word or a PDF editor.

OCR works just fine on screenshots.

[Harold Mansfield]

OCR works just fine on screenshots.
What's OCR? It can take an image and turn it into an editable document?

[Brian Altenhofel]

What's OCR? It can take an image and turn it into an editable document?

Yep. Some scanners even had it built-in 10 years ago. It's been very usable and accurate since the '70s. Nowadays, it can even do most handwriting.

[Harold Mansfield]

Yep. Some scanners even had it built-in 10 years ago. It's been very usable and accurate since the '70s. Nowadays, it can even do most handwriting.
Where might I find this sorcery? Can you point me to a link ? What does "OCR " stand for?

[Brian Altenhofel]

Where might I find this sorcery? Can you point me to a link ? What does "OCR " stand for?

Optical character recognition. Been around since the 1910's converting text on film to telegraph transmissions.

Most HP scanners come with reasonably decent OCR software. The enterprise stuff from Xerox is really good.

[Harold Mansfield]

So you're saying that I can take a screen shot of a form, and convert it so that it is editable in Word or Adobe Acrobat?

[Wozcreative]

There are online OCR's available, you would upload an image file and it can try to find the text for you. I don't remember any specific ones, but I've used one online before.
Cheapo scanners for $60 have OCR's built in too.

[Brian Altenhofel]

So you're saying that I can take a screen shot of a form, and convert it so that it is editable in Word or Adobe Acrobat?

Yes.

A lot of that goes on in the public sector.

[ActionMan]

Digital assets are very easy to recreate and you will get people who will steal these from you. You can lock the files and such but, as you've noted, this might be bothersome to your legitimate clients and might not really deter those who steal them.

You might want to consider providing a value added service or services along with the documents that you provide. Or provide additional materials, lists, etc that is not displayed publicly. This service or materials you provide should not be easy to duplicate without your involvement. I don't know much about their business or what you do, but as an example, suppose you have an instructional PDF book that you sell, you may want to offer some sort of online access to related and useful material on a web site for those who purchase your book and can show proof of such purchase. This way, people are more likely to purchase the book rather than pilfer it online.

In fact, like someone else suggested, you may want to consider providing these event related PDFs for free on your site and offer the other value added service(s) for more money than you would charge for the PDFs alone.

[DeniseTaylor]

Here's a possible idea -

Is there any way you can benefit from this? One thought is to have clients refer them to YOUR website, where they can obtain the information. Of course, the fact that they can get it for free is attractive to them.

What if you had them enter their email address and then auto-delivered it to their email. Then lock the .pdfs so the traffic is funneled to you.

With the traffic coming to you directly, you can grow an email list and control what happens to all that traffic. Perhaps create a newsletter that comes free with the list and use those mailings to turn this traffic into business leads down the road?

Basically, I'm suggesting that instead of fighting it, find someway to turn it into a benefit. It might take some thought and realize I have no idea how tough it is to create those lists. Perhaps some kind of modification could be done so it doesn't hurt you, and perhaps offer to upgrade for $$?

Just a thought.

[billbenson]

Just a thought. a good thought

[Blessed]

Here's a possible idea -

Basically, I'm suggesting that instead of fighting it, find someway to turn it into a benefit. It might take some thought and realize I have no idea how tough it is to create those lists. Perhaps some kind of modification could be done so it doesn't hurt you, and perhaps offer to upgrade for $$?

Just a thought.

It is a very good thought... right now we're in the middle of the busy season, so I'm just seeing these files pop up on different Facebook pages and websites, but during the off-season I'll work on figuring this one out!

Not only does it frustrate me, but it frustrates the Franchisee that pays me to do this work when someone else turns around and "steals" it then uses it without paying for it. She feels like they are stealing her idea in addition to my work and any added value I've put into her idea.

The Franchise won't interfere because they would prefer for my client to quit using me and just use their ridiculously expensive "corporate" designer who isn't actually affiliated with the Franchise - just does all of the initial work for each new campaign and sets up the files for the online ordering system and has some sort of contract with them. She's also a long-time personal friend of the CEO and runs a very successful business of her own. She's a good designer. The problem my clients have with using that corporate designer is two-part. First her price is 150-200% higher than what I charge. So if I charge $75 for edits on a postcard, she would charge $150-$200 for the same edits. Edits that take around an hour the first time (and then only because I have to dissect the original piece and go from there) and 20-30 minutes for each other sale after that. The second is that her turn-around time is typically 5-7 days, I can generally turn what they need in 6-48 hours.

The Franchise has had problems with owners using Publisher or Paint or MS Word to create items so they finally published a brand guideline and all of our stuff lines up to it - so they can't penalize my client for not using the other designer. They just don't help out either.

[Blessed]

Where might I find this sorcery? Can you point me to a link ? What does "OCR " stand for?

I'm amazed that you didn't know what OCR was Harold!

Like Brian said - many scanners have reasonably decent OCR software. It isn't perfect - but it certainly does make converting a text-heavy document into something easily editable much easier! I don't use OCR much anymore but I used it for a few hours every day 20 years ago when I scanned press releases in for the newspaper - back when most press releases to our small-town, twice weekly paper came in the snail mail and not email!