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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Copy protection on AWS literature?
- - By Metarinka (****) Date 03-01-2010 17:00
color me surprised. we bought several pdf versions of AWS specs. as an engineer I don't have purchasing power so it goes through our purchasing agent then he placed it on a network drive.  Well apparently there's some sort of copy protection on the file. I can't open the pdf now, only he can.

I'm thinking this has got to be our own internal network issues, I've never heard of PDF's with DRM.   anyways very inconvenient, he has no use for welding codes and I don't feel like printing 800 pages
what to do, what to do?
Parent - - By HgTX (***) Date 03-01-2010 17:09
That is exactly how AWS does their PDFs.  It goes on ONE computer.  Which makes it less useful than owning ONE book, because at least you can pick up the one book from the library shelf and take it to your desk.  This is like having one book with a 2-ft. chain whose other end is nailed to the desk of whoever first opened the book.

The idea is to have one-person use  for a single purchase.  I assume they also have network pricing but I could be wrong.  Unfortunately they don't make it very clear that it gets stuck on the first computer it's downloaded on.  You could try having him delete the file from the network drive and put it on your workstation.  If that doesn't work, he can call AWS and tell them he put the file on the wrong workstation and ask them how to go about moving it.

A better option is their new flash drive PDFs.  Those work more like a library hardcopy--whoever has the flash drive in their hand can open it on whatever computer they're on--which makes sense for places where people move from workstation to workstation, or from their desktop to their laptop.  AWS might be willing to let y'all swap out if you didn't know the flash drives existed.

Those flash drives, by the way, just like Windows 7, were MY idea.  (Windows 7 TV advertisement reference.)

Hg
Parent - By HgTX (***) Date 03-01-2010 17:16
Also if they don't let you just swap the downloaded PDF for the flash, the flash drives are very cheap with purchase of a print code, and maybe since you are on record as having bought the PDF already, they'll give you the flash drive at the "also-ran" price.  I forget how much it was, but something friendly like $50.

Hg
Parent - - By Metarinka (****) Date 03-01-2010 17:44
looks like my best bet is to call AWS and sort this out. our purchasing agent can't really use 4 welding codes, and the whole point of having a pdf was so that we wouldn't have a stack of books to lug around.
Parent - By bozaktwo1 (***) Date 03-01-2010 17:50
Maybe this nice person can fix it for you:

natalia [natalia.rojas@wex-americas.com]
Parent - - By Lawrence (*****) Date 03-01-2010 17:11
Nothing money can't fix Joel  >snort<

They (AWS) are very protective about digital copies for purchase.

If you print it make sure you get it right because It will prolly only let you do that once as well.
Parent - - By bozaktwo1 (***) Date 03-01-2010 17:48
Twice, actually.  :)

It is a pain in the behind, and I went and got myself a notebook to use as my primary machine partly because of this DRM practice.  So I now ave all the code books I need and can carry them wherever I need to be.  However, it is an understatement to say that it is inconvenient.  There is no provision for "network pricing," at least not as far as I can tell.  And whenever I have to change computers, I end up having to call the nice tech support people at AWS and get them all reset so I can download them to my next new machine.  Hoping this one lasts a while.
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 03-01-2010 17:55 Edited 03-01-2010 19:53
I believe you CAN purchase a licensed multi-user copy for your server, it just costs a few dollars more. Call AWS and explain your situation, possibly they can help you out and let you upgrade to the multi-user pdf.

EDIT:...Call to make sure this option is available, I mentioned it only because someone told me they had purchased, or was trying to purchase a multi-use copy...so I don't know this to be 100% true. Maybe Ross or someone else can chime in and verify this information.
Parent - By HgTX (***) Date 03-01-2010 19:55
Their DRM practice made the downloadable PDFs pretty much useless.  As I told them over and over, stridently.

The flash drives are, in theory, a much better idea since they give you the same portability as a hard copy.  But I haven't bought one yet so I haven't seen this for myself.  With any luck I'll be authorized to buy some next month.

Hg
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 03-01-2010 17:56
Have enough paper and ink on hand...BEFORE you hit "print"
- - By Bob Garner (***) Date 03-01-2010 18:25
As a side note: AWS weld symbols are copyrighted.  So you can't sell them.  But you can put them on a fabrication drawing, that you effectively sell to your client. 

If I draw an elaborate fabrication that utilizes all the AWS welding symbols, can I post it on my website because I designed it?  And then you could download it for free and see all the new welding symbols without paying AWS?

Copyright and intellectual property laws are getting crazy and making us crazier.
Parent - By HgTX (***) Date 03-01-2010 19:49
You need to suborn a committee member into sneaking an error into the summary chart.  Then you can get a nice free legal one via the errata like you could for the 1998 edition:

http://files.aws.org/technical/errata/A2.4errata.pdf

I couldn't find a difference between that chart and what I saw in the book, so I'd assumed AWS just did it to be nice, but since there isn't a new one for 2007, I guess they weren't.

Hg
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Copy protection on AWS literature?

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