How it works
For a brief explanation of how the Drumlin PDF software and associated Digital Rights Management service works, please see the diagram below and the section"The Drumlin Software and Service" further down this web page. The diagram illustrates the process for Windows and Mac computers - for iPADs the procedure is essentially the same but the way in which the files are secured is slightly different (they are encapsulated rather than encrypted).
We also suggest that you take a quick look at how it works by clickingherewhich takes you to a set introductions to using and securely publishing with the Drumlin reader/publisher software. For more details please select from the links below:
The Drumlin Software and Service
There are two main parts to the Drumlin service:
1. Client software: The free 'Drumlin' PDF reader/publisher (Windows OS) - the Drumlin program is like the Adobe Acrobat (c) PDF reader but with stronger encryption which is effectively impossible to break. All communication exchanges are strongly encrypted and unlike other products there are no insecure temporary files are used whilst handling documents. Drumlin is not susceptible to decryption using the free or low-cost PDF decryption software widely available on the web. It ensures that a published document (DRMX files, or EXE files which are DRMX files packaged withi a secure PDF reader) can only be viewed by a person who has been authorized, and only on the specific computer that has been authorized for this document. Special variants of these are also provided in order to allow pre-authorization, offline authorization, or no authorization, depending on the requirements of the publisher. Many other controls on access and usage are provided. Drumlin supports secure PDF document publishing with extensive controls available to the publisher, e.g. how many times the document can be viewed, whether it can be printed, when viewing can start and when viewing is no longer permitted etc. If you need to produce the basic PDF from your source document (e.g. a Word document, a Publisher document) we recommend that you use Adobe Acrobat, or a free or low cost PDF creation facility like CutePDF or PDF Creator Plus. Guidance on publishing secure PDFs with Drumlin can be foundhere. For special devices, such as iPADs, a different form of file protection is employed using a form of file encapsulation rather than encryption.
2. Server: A central "digital rights management" (DRM) service that manages user access to published secure PDFs and related transaction information. Publishers, who must be registered users of the service, can obtain authorization codes or publishing quotas for their own documents via this facility. Authorization codes are not required for sample/evaluation documents ("Basic DRM files" and "Exe files with No authorization set") which have pre-defined limitations on their use or may be set to have these restrictions on viewing and printing removed. Free authorization codes are provided to publishers for use in conjunction with testing the highly secure DRMX format and associated exe files ("Fully secured files").