How to find out who leaked your PDF

You've found your PDF on a forum, a file-sharing site or a Telegram channel. Identifying the order behind it can help you investigate and decide whether to pause further downloads. A match identifies a purchased copy; it doesn't prove who uploaded it. You can report an infringing copy even if you can't trace its source.

Save the evidence firstCopy Anchor Link

Pages get taken down and posts get edited, so do this before anything else.

• Download the file exactly as you found it. Don't open it and save it again, print it to PDF or run it through a converter. Each of those can rewrite the document properties you're about to check.
• Write down every web address where the file or a link to it appears: the post, the download page, and the direct file link if there is one.
• Take screenshots of each page, with the address bar, the date and the username of whoever posted it in view.
• Note how you found it, for example from a search result, a forum thread or a message from a customer.

You'll need the exact addresses later for the takedown notice.

What a leaked copy can tell youCopy Anchor Link

Work through these in order, from the most obvious clue to the best hidden.

The visible stampCopy Anchor Link

Open the file and look at every page, not just the first. A leaker may delete the first page or crop the edges and still miss a stamp that repeats further in.

Look for a name, an email address, an order number or a company name. A white box over the footer, cut-off text or cropped pages may suggest that a stamp was altered. Compare the file with your original before drawing conclusions about an edit.

A copy code or licence codeCopy Anchor Link

If your stamp included a code, it may have survived even where the name was removed. An Imprint copy code identifies one download. A licence code identifies an order, which may contain several files and downloads. A name or email may match several orders from the same customer.

In Imprint, type the code into Find Order by Code on the Orders page (Basic plan and up). Upper and lower case, spaces and hyphens don't matter, and look-alike characters such as O and 0 are handled for you. Copy codes also have a built-in check that helps catch typing errors. If you have a copy code, find it in the order's Download Log to see that download's time, country and device. A licence code alone doesn't identify a single download. The copy tracking docs explain both codes.

The document propertiesCopy Anchor Link

PDFs can carry document properties such as a title, author, keywords, producer and dates. These fields may be missing or changed by other software. To inspect them, look for Document Properties in your PDF reader. Common options include:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader: open Document Properties from the menu, or press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on a Mac).
• Preview on a Mac: Tools → Show Inspector.

Two things are worth looking for:

• Your own codes or customer details. Some delivery apps write them here. Imprint's tracing marks save the copy code and the order's licence code in the properties.
• The producer and the dates. Compare these with your original PDF. Differences may suggest that software re-saved or converted the file, which can remove tracing marks. These fields can also be copied or edited, so they don't prove when or why the file changed.

Hidden textCopy Anchor Link

Some delivery apps hide a code on the page itself, in text too small or faint to see. Select all the text in the file (Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A on a Mac), copy it, and paste it into a plain text editor. Hidden text often shows up there. You can also search the file for "@" and look for an email address that isn't yours.

Imprint does this part for you. On the Premium plan, upload the file on the Leak tracing page and Imprint reads the text of the first 100 pages and the document properties for copy codes, licence codes, customer emails and order numbers. It also tries to read a QR code on the first three pages. Every clue is compared with your own store's orders, the result shows how confident the match is, and the uploaded file is deleted once it has been analyzed.

A QR codeCopy Anchor Link

A readable QR code can survive printing, scanning and photos. Scan it with your phone's camera. An Imprint tracing QR code holds the copy code, which you can paste into Find Order by Code.

What the file can't tell youCopy Anchor Link

A name on a leaked file tells you whose copy it was. It doesn't prove that person uploaded it. They may have sent it to a friend who posted it, had their email account broken into, or used a shared computer. Codes and download logs narrow it down to one download, but not to the person who clicked "upload".

Treat a match as a strong lead, and check it before you act on it.

What to do when you find a leak, step by stepCopy Anchor Link

1. Save the evidence, as described above.
2. Identify the copy. Check the stamp, any codes, the document properties, hidden text and the QR code. With Imprint's Premium plan, upload the file on the Leak tracing page and open the result.
3. Check the match. A copy code points to one download; a licence code points to an order. An email can match several orders. Imprint labels a match High confidence when it finds a matching copy code, or an order's licence code in the document properties. Check the product and the available download history before acting on any match, especially a Medium or Low one.
4. Stop further downloads from that order. If the customer's link still works, it may be how the copies are being made. In Imprint, click Restrict this order's downloads on the result, or Restrict Downloads on the order page. The customer's links stop working and they see a message, which you can write yourself.
5. Contact the customer, if you decide to. Stick to the facts: a copy of the file from their order was found at a public address, and their downloads are paused. Ask them to remove anything they've shared. You don't need to explain how you traced it, and it's better not to say where any hidden marks are.
6. Ask for the copies to be removed. Send a takedown notice to the site, its host, or both. How to send a DMCA takedown notice for a leaked PDF covers where to send it and includes templates for the US and the EU. In Imprint, Draft a takedown notice on the result fills in the title of your work for you.
7. Look for other copies. Search for your product's exact title together with "pdf", and for a distinctive sentence from inside the file in quotation marks. A Google Alert on the title emails you when new pages mention it.
8. Protect the copies you haven't sold yet. If the file you found had no code or hidden marks, turn them on now.

The leak tracing docs explain every status and confidence level in Imprint's results.

If your files weren't markedCopy Anchor Link

You can still learn something, and you can still get the copies taken down.

• Compare versions. A changed cover, corrected typo or added page may help date the copy. It won't necessarily date the purchase: earlier buyers may have downloaded an updated file later.
• Check where else you sell it. If the same PDF is on Etsy or another platform, small differences between the files you uploaded to each one can show which channel the copy came from.
• Read the document properties. The dates and the producer can still show whether the copy is your original file or a re-saved one.
• Look at the post itself. When the file was first posted and the poster's username are weak clues. Don't act against a customer on timing alone.
• Send the takedown anyway. You don't need to know who leaked a file to ask for its removal. A takedown notice identifies your work and where the copies are, not where they came from.

Then start marking your files. Copies that were already downloaded stay as they are, so only new downloads will carry the stamp, the codes and the marks.

How to make the next leak traceableCopy Anchor Link

• Stamp every page with the buyer's name and a copy code, so deleting the first page doesn't remove it.
• Add hidden marks as another way to identify a copy if its stamp is removed. Add a QR code for printed or scanned copies. All of these marks can be lost, so tracing depends on what survives.
• Keep a download log. Knowing when, where and on what device each copy was downloaded lets you check a match before you act on it.
• Make each sales channel's file slightly different if you sell the same PDF in more than one place, so a leaked copy shows where it was bought.

In Imprint, the stamp comes with every plan. Basic and up let you add copy codes to the stamp and view the Download Log; Premium adds tracing marks and leak tracing. The leak tracing page shows how it fits together, and the tracing marks docs explain where each mark goes. For how stamps and hidden marks hold up against cropping, editing and printing, read Visible vs invisible PDF watermarks. If you're still setting up your store, start with How to sell PDFs on Shopify and limit sharing.