Over the years I have received literally hundreds of requests for a PDF, Word, or other printable version of the 8052.com tutorial. I actually started working on this back in 1998 and, after a number of interruptions, I pretty much finished it in 2001. At this point I'm interested in making the PDF version available on this website. My only concern is outright theft.

Already there are a number of websites around the world that have taken the HTML files of my tutorials and posted them on their websites without authorization. One website went so far as to copy the entire tutorial, place it on their website, and remove my copyright notice and claim their own! I have been made aware of these illegal copies by 8052.com members as well as occasionally searching Google for some of the text included in various parts of my tutorial.

Now I have a PDF version that I'd like to make available for the benefit of everyone that has asked for such a format. Again, my concern is flagrant theft. Obviously the idea is that everyone can download it, everyone can print it. But I'm concerned that a PDF version would make it even easier and more tempting for unethical people, such as those mentioned above, to hijack my work, remove the existing credits, and take credit for it themselves.

I suppose one option is to simply ignore it. This approach is tempting, but it does hurt to see someone else steal your work and take credit for it.

Another option that I was considering was to release it in PDF format with copy/paste/edit disabled. But there are hacking tools that remove such PDF protection so that doesn't really help.

Yet another option which I am considering, regardless, is to self-publish the tutorial. I can do so via upublish.com at a relatively low cost and they indicate that I could publish it with them even though I distribute the same content free on the website. But for those that want a dead-tree version it might be easier (maybe even cheaper) than printing off hundreds of pages of tutorials. This doesn't solve the problem of illegal copies, but it does make it more clear that the work is mine when I'm publishing it.

I would very much like to hear your feedback on this. It isn't so much an "information wants to be free" issue since I'd like to make the PDF available free of charge. It's more of an "I'd like to have my name remain on my work" issue.

Regards,
Craig Steiner