Do the CGL pdf files have any DRM?

[Wumpus]

Hi all, it's been years and years (like, pre-WhizKids days) since I last bought a paper Battletech book, and I only recently started looking at the set of pdf files I got from this game's kickstarter campaign, and it made me want to update my library.

So I put a bunch of PDFs in my cart over at the Catalyst store but before actually purchasing, I realized I should check if they sell PDFs that are encrypted/protected/locked in any way, or if they are just completely DRM-free .pdf files. As I'm on linux, and hate Adobe, etc etc, I would probably have technical issues reading if they include that kind of DRM.

I couldn't find the answer anyplace on the CGL website, so I sent them a question, but then realized that it's far more likely I'll get a quick reply here since it's not business hours right now anywhere that isn't burning. Speaking of which, best wishes to all the folks down under.

While I'm here, the current books in my cart include:

BattleTech Primer & Universe Book (Freebies)
Total Warfare
TechManual
Campaign Operations
Interstellar Operations
Strategic Operations

Are there any not listed that I should strongly consider? My goal is to get completely up-to-date on all rules.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

I’ve bought and downloaded CGL .pdf straight to both iBook and Kindle. I do not use Adobe,

I have not noticed any encryption and have had no problems with either process.

@Wumpus, if you can point me in the right direction, I’ll look closer and see if there is any evidence of DRM. :bow:

 

[Wumpus]

I’ve bought and downloaded CGL .pdf straight to both iBook and Kindle. I do not use Adobe,

I have not noticed any encryption and have had no problems with either process.

@Wumpus, if you can point me in the right direction, I’ll look closer and see if there is any evidence of DRM. :bow:

Hey thanks for the info and offer!

Google says that if you load the .pdf file into a plain text editor, rather than a .pdf viewer (so you can see the source code, so to speak), then search for "/Encrypt" and fail to find it, the .pdf is DRM free. But BEWARE: I'm guessing a lot of text editors would choke on the size of a typical e-book .pdf, so preferably you would want to use something like Notepad++ on Windows, or some equivalent programming editor that can handle large files on other OSs.

In fact, if you are on linux or MacOs, you can just drop into a terminal in the appropriate folder and use grep:

grep '/Encrypt' somefile.pdf

If you just get no output and a fresh command line prompt, then there's no DRM. If it spits out one or more lines of inscrutable pdf code, it's maybe got some.

 

[Timaeus]

At least some (like the April Fools Day Battlerun) are completely unrestricted and can even be loaded into a program that edits PDFs at the postscipt/vector level (like Illustrator). If they are restricted in some way I would guess it would be similar to DrivethuRPG's which is just restricting document disassembly (the above opening in Illustrator). Generally though from my understanding, a pdf is a pdf, and lot of places don't make use of restrictive 3rd party content management for them which would be the bit that's that trips you up more than just the built-in document restrictions.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Hey thanks for the info and offer!

Google says that if you load the .pdf file into a plain text editor, rather than a .pdf viewer (so you can see the source code, so to speak), then search for "/Encrypt" and fail to find it, the .pdf is DRM free. But BEWARE: I'm guessing a lot of text editors would choke on the size of a typical e-book .pdf, so preferably you would want to use something like Notepad++ on Windows, or some equivalent programming editor that can handle large files on other OSs.

In fact, if you are on linux or MacOs, you can just drop into a terminal in the appropriate folder and use grep:

grep '/Encrypt' somefile.pdf

If you just get no output and a fresh command line prompt, then there's no DRM. If it spits out one or more lines of inscrutable pdf code, it's maybe got some.

It's past 5am and I've got to take a knee and get some sleep for a bit. I tried once more, but my iPad, iBook and a couple Notepad-like Apps got me nowhere. Sorry about that. :bow:

 

[Wumpus]

It's past 5am and I've got to take a knee and get some sleep for a bit. I tried once more, but my iPad, iBook and a couple Notepad-like Apps got me nowhere. Sorry about that. :bow:

Sleep well, thank you so much for the effort, and make no attempt to continue when you awake because by then I'll be asleep myself, and before long will have a reply from CGL directly. I owe you a coffee or beverage of your choice, should we ever meet.

 

[Wumpus]

At least some (like the April Fools Day Battlerun) are completely unrestricted and can even be loaded into a program that edits PDFs at the postscipt/vector level (like Illustrator). If they are restricted in some way I would guess it would be similar to DrivethuRPG's which is just restricting document disassembly (the above opening in Illustrator). Generally though from my understanding, a pdf is a pdf, and lot of places don't make use of restrictive 3rd party content management for them which would be the bit that's that trips you up more than just the built-in document restrictions.

Thanks for the info! As my cart contains nearly $100 usd of .pdfs, I'll wait for explicit confirmation rather than depend on general understandings (mine or yours (and we seem to have functionally similar understandings on this)). Cheers!

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Sleep well, thank you so much for the effort, and make no attempt to continue when you awake because by then I'll be asleep myself, and before long will have a reply from CGL directly. I owe you a coffee or beverage of your choice, should we ever meet.

And I’ll buy the second round. : )

 

[Wumpus]

Just for the avoidance of any doubt by random folks who might find this in the future, I wanted to close out this thread by posting that I have completed my purchase and verified that all the .pdf files listed above are unencumbered by any form of DRM.