sell documents securely

Membership Associations

Document security for membership associations, member organizations, industry associations & societies

  Free Trial & Demo

“Fantastic product… outstanding support.”

“We would recommend Locklizard to others”

“The clear leader for PDF DRM protection”

“Our ebook sales have gone through the roof”

“Simple & secure – protects IPR from theft”

Trusted by:

Secure documents: protect revenue generating & confidential documents

Associations, societies, membership organisations and digital document delivery

Proving digital online copies of documents to members has many advantages, including:

  • Reducing costs – saving on paper and postage
  • Time savings with electronic distribution
  • Reaching new markets
  • Environmental benefits (less ink and paper)

However, the main disadvantage is that electronic documents can be easily copied, shared and pirated.

Locklizard enables industry associations, societies and membership organisations to protect revenue generating and confidential documents from unauthorized sharing and misuse.  We control who can access documents and how they can be used by authorized users.

What member organizations need to consider when distributing documents online

Membership organizations draw their members from many walks of life and backgrounds.  There are special interest organizations that may be focused on a specific product such as SAP, or they may be members of standards bodies, whose rationale is to produce better quality and better written standards.

Membership bodies are often defined by their interests – The Law Society for example, acts as a regulator for best professional practice, and as a repository for technical information.  The Federation of Small Businesses provides advice and guidance to their members on common problems faced by small business owners.  Despite the differences they have many requirements in common:

  • they must deliver documents of value to their members
  • the documents must have an intrinsic value
  • they must be perceived as giving advantage to members over non-members
  • they must not be readily available other than from the organization
  • services may have to be tiered for grades of member

Membership levels and secure document distribution

For a marketing and management strategy the organization needs several tiers of documents.  That is to set out levels of service delivery and member recognition.  So the access to and distribution of documents must be protected to deliver services tightly focused on developing membership benefits.

This means that they need documents for:

  • the public – to attract new members and to demonstrate available expertise
  • members only, being where technical skills and information are created and distributed
  • special interest groups concentrating on niche expertise and recognition
  • tiers of members (Associates, Members, Fellows)

Special interests can cross over the other organizational boundaries.

Controlling member access and document use

  Controlling member access

Traditionally, access to a member area is controlled via a login to a cloud-based system where members enter their login credentials to gain access to the system.

The major weakness with this type of system is that members can share login credentials with others who can then access and download content for free.  Usually there is no location restriction in place so users can login from anywhere in the world.

Generally, the only protection provided is the login access, and once logged in, users have full control over the documents made available to them.

  Controlling membership access levels

Often membership organizations provide different levels of membership and this may reflect on the type and amount of content users can access.

Traditionally this has been achieved using access controls, but they are far from foolproof and often difficult to manage especially with a large user base.

Once content is downloaded from the system then it is no longer protected.

  How Locklizard Document Security helps

Locklizard enables member associations, industry associations and membership societies to protect confidential documents and proprietary information regardless of where it is located.  We provide persistent document protection ensuring that content remains protected even when downloaded to a local device.

Our document security software enables associations to deliver documents securely to members and stop them from being shared with non-members.  Documents can be locked to both devices and locations and you can revoke access at any stage.

Locklizard document security can be easily integrated with your existing member management software – you just upload protected documents to your system and can automate user access to protected documents using our ecommerce API.

How Locklizard enables member associations to protect their IPR and revenue

  • Stop unauthorized use

    Safeguard PDF Security has a number of DRM controls that protect PDF documents from misuse:

    • Stop sharing
    • Stop copying and pasting
    • Stop printing (if you allow printing then we stop printing to file drivers so users cannot print to PDF format)
    • Stop editing
    • Stop saving to unprotected file formats.
    • Stop Windows print screen and third party screen grabbers
  • Document Expiry & Revoking Access

    Use PDF expiry to provide time limited trials or to ensure only the latest information is ever made available.

    • Set PDF files to expire on a fixed date, after a number of days, or a number of views or prints.
    • Individual user access to the same PDF document can be set to expire at different times.
    • Revoke PDF files at any time regardless of where they are located.
    • Revoke user access to a single, multiple or all PDF files.

    Revoking user access can be useful if a chargeback is made and you want to ensure that the user can no longer access documents they have not paid for.

    Document revocation can be useful when you need to replace a document that contains incorrect information or should no longer be made available.

  • Lock documents to devices and locations

    PDF documents can be locked to a

    • country location
    • domain
    • range of IP addresses

    on a user or global basis.  E.g. you might want to provide access to different digital products depending on the country location the user is located in.

    PDF documents are automatically locked to authorized devices so they cannot be shared.  If a user copies a document and keystore to another device then it will fail to open.

  • Non-removable dynamic watermarks

    Dynamic watermarks (user’s name, email, company, date/time, etc.) can be displayed at view/print time.

    You only have to protect the PDF once for all users and the correct information is inserted depending on the user who has opened the document.

    This discourages photographs or photocopies (if printing is allowed) from being distributed since the user responsible is clearly identified.

  • Track & Log PDF use

    Track & monitor PDF use – see when your members viewed and printed documents, from where and on what devices.

  • Strong PDF Security

    Unlike the simple removal of Adobe PDF password protection Safeguard PDF security cannot be easily bypassed.

    With Safeguard:

    • PDFs are only ever decrypted in memory
    • Keys are securely & transparently relayed and locked to authorized devices
    • DRM controls are persistent and cannot be removed
    • We stop screen grabbing tools being used to take high-quality screenshots of document content
    • We prevent printing to PDF files (an easy way to remove protection)
    • We don’t use insecure passwords or plugins
    • We use US Gov Strength AES encryption, DRM and licensing controls to enforce access and document use

    You protect PDF documents on your local computer (so there is no uploading of unprotected documents to a cloud server where they could be compromized).  You then distribute them just like any other file.

Safeguard PDF Security provides strong document security for member associations enabling you to control PDF access and use.  Protect your IPR and revenue – stop document piracy, theft, sharing & misuse.

  Download Document DRM Software to control member access & document use

Download document protection software that uses US Government strength encryption and digital rights management controls to protect PDF files from unauthorized access and misuse.

Protect documents from being shared, copied, printed, and edited.  Stop unauthorized distribution and use.

Protect PDF files on your computer (no uploading of unprotected documents to the cloud), then upload protected documents to your web site, your member management system, or distribute them just like any other file.

See how you can benefit from implementing Locklizard document security to protect your IPR and revenue – prevent IPR theft, protect your revenue streams, save costs and time, and instantly gain access to new markets.

Read our customer testimonials and case studies to see why thousands of organizations use Locklizard Document DRM to securely distribute documents online.

Customer Testimonials