Creating policies

Policy attributes

When creating a new policy, you set various policy attributes, such as the policy name. If you are using the LiveCycle SDK or the Rights Management web pages to create the policy, you can also set a validity period for the policy. A validity period is the time period during which a policy-protected document is accessible to authorized recipients. If you do not set this attribute, the policy is always valid.

A validity period can be set to one of these options:

• A set number of days that the document is accessible from the time it is published

• An end date after which the document is not accessible

• A specific date range for which the document is accessible

• Always valid

You can specify only a start date, which results in the policy being valid after the start date. If you specify just an end date, the policy is valid until the end date.

You can also create a policy that applies a dynamic watermark to PDF documents. Watermarks help ensure the security of a PDF document by uniquely identifying the document and controlling copyright infringement. These dynamic watermarks are different from the static watermarks that you can apply on PDF documents from Acrobat.

You can define dynamic watermarks that consist of multiple watermark elements, each containing text or a PDF. The text that is displayed in the watermark can be any of these:

User name:

The name of the user who opened the document

User ID:

The ID of the user who opened the document

Policy name:

The name of the policy that is assigned to the document

Current date:

The date the document was opened

Custom text:

Text, such as the word Confidential

You can define the appearance of the text, such as font, font size, and background color.

With a PDF document as the watermark element, you can include logos or special graphic indicators. For both text and PDF watermark elements, you can specify the scaling, positioning on the document, and the dynamic range of pages where the watermark should be applied. For example, you can have the watermark appearing on all pages of the documents, regardless of the number of pages.

After a watermark is created, you can include it as part of a policy. After a policy that contains a watermark is applied to a PDF document, the watermark appears on each page of the policy-protected document.

Policy entry

A policy entry attaches principals, which are groups and users, and permissions to a policy. A policy must have at least one policy entry. Assume, for example, that you perform these tasks:

• Create a policy entry that lets a group view a document only while online and prohibits recipients from copying it

• Attach the policy entry to the policy

• Use the policy to secure a document

As a result of these actions, recipients can view the document only online and cannot copy it. The document remains secure until security is removed from it.

Methods for creating policies

• Users and administrators can use the Rights Management web pages. (See “Creating and editing policies” in Rights Management Help or LiveCycle Administration Help.)

• Use Workbench to create a policy from an existing policy. When you create a policy in Workbench, there are fewer properties to configure. (See Workbench Help.)

• Use the Rights Management Service API. (See Programming with LiveCycle.)