online book reader - streaming/chunking parts of a book

Question

I am trying to create an online book reader (all text, no graphics needed). The reader can be flash or html/javascript. The trick is I need to push out the book in chunks so I can limit non-paid readers to only the first chunk or so. I have thought about just pre-parsing a book file into several files (each chunk) and serving each but there is no good way to segment as I cannot easily segment by chapters (not always sure where a chapter begins). So a more fluid solution would be best.

Additionally, I need some basic security to make it difficult to copy the content and piece it back together as a whole book. I don't expect this part to be unbreakable, just good enough.

I've seen I can make each book a PDF and then convert that into an SWF. But then how would I limit the frames served in flash (assuming a swf frame is a pdf page)? Any ideas?

btw, I've looked closely at Scribd's iPaper. Things like that look slick but don't really provide a good reading experience for text only books. I do like the readability of some of Google's books. Its fluid and seems to read well for mostly text books.

Answer 1

Consider this solution:

You convert the first chunk to a separate file that you serve to your free people and the paid people get the larger one. If you serve up the SWF with all the content in it then you just gave it away for free to any technical users.

The best solution is just to limit what you return to only the portions you want them to see. I think Print2Flash does a good job for a reader (you can customize it a lot if you're so inclined).