Basic Question

asked before, but answers are dated. I need to expire a pdf document in x years.

Details:

I have a very simple need. I am writing a textbook. I would like to distribute it for free while it is not yet published. However, I do not want the pdf's to be around forever. so, I would like the pdf file to expire in 3 years. Literally, this is all I need---expiration of the pdf document in 3 years. (javascript is obviously a little bit too insecure for this purpose.) I am not making any money off the prepublication distribution; I need a fairly low-cost solution.

what are the options? what I have learned is spotty.

Locklizard is too expensive. Livecyle is overkill and too expensive.

Adobe Document Center---many documents that started explaining it were written in 2007. the closest to current that I found was https://dc.adobe.com/adc/faq.do . some of the old documentation tells me that it is limited to 500 users. yikes. won't do. I may have more than 500 readers.)

There is also something called certificate security, but I am not sure where to find a "getting started" document, or whether it can do what I need it to do. (The Document Center says that the difference from the standard PDF security settings is that only the ADC can change settings after distribution. Because I don't need to change it after .pdf distribution, I would be fine with this.) are these standard SSL certificates that I can purchase from various vendors, or specific to Adobe? what happens when these certificates expire? (I.e., I need the security to prevent access in 2015, x years after the document was written. I don't need verification that it was I who authored the document, or that the document was authored while the certificate was in force.)

for these solutions, do users (readers) have to be connected to the Internet? always? only the first time?

anything else I need to know?

/iaw