Suppose a website offers the following resources for premium users:
- PDF Files
- Video Files
- Presentations (e.g. .ppt files)
Which protection techniques are available to prevent (slow down) the user to copy and re-distribute these resources?
views:
89answers:
4
+6
A:
PDF - password protection
Video files - DRM (unable to play without license file)
Presentations? No idea.
Most these techniques are also sure techniques to repel normal users from your site.
Developer Art
2010-02-24 11:22:56
+1 for your closing statement.
spender
2010-02-24 11:25:44
+1 for your +1 of his closing statement.
datageist
2010-02-24 11:29:00
And password protection does not really help against copying...
Stephan Eggermont
2010-02-24 12:47:10
Well, imagine you write a book and you want to provide an online version of it. If you make a living from that, I guess you don't want to sell a unique copy of it and let other people copying the original version from a friend. From the point of view of a commercial company, copy protection sometimes is unavoidable. But I guess that's not the main issue here. Let's just assume the need is a matter of fact and we're finding techniques.
Roberto Aloi
2010-02-24 14:09:15
The jury is still out on whether copy protection is unavoidable. Amazon and Apple both sell DRM free MP3's and make plenty of money doing so, despite the availability of just about every song ever made on torrent sites.
Peter Recore
2010-02-24 19:07:00
@Roberto Aloi: If the need is a matter of fact, then you're in trouble, because another fact is that there is no technique that will work. There are plenty of needs in the world that cannot be met. However, Baen Books at http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm seems to be doing very well giving a lot of books away while selling paper versions, so you might want to see what they're doing.
David Thornley
2010-02-24 19:19:39
I'm perfectly aware of the fact that, at the end of the day, I need to decrypt all my resources in front of the final user (a video will play on a screen and the user will be still able to record its screen, for example). What I'm asking here are techniques not too obtrusive but that will still convince users to buy a product instead of copying it. For example, I've seen eBooks marked with personal details of a user in the footer of each page. That could help, since the user will need to crop them before re-distributing a PDF. I'm just looking for ideas.
Roberto Aloi
2010-02-24 22:11:25
While I tend to agree that throwing huge obstacles in the paths of users is a pain, I don't agree with the blanket statement, "there is no technique that will work". Broadly speaking, the intention with most copy protection techniques is to provide enough inconvenience that the casual user won't bother trying to steal your stuff, and will just buy it instead; effectively, just prompting them to stay honest. You'll have limited success fending off determined crackers, but those situations are the ones that end up in court.
Rob
2010-02-24 22:29:15
The only thing that will get someone to buy something is compelling content at a compelling price. Anything else will KEEP them from buying your product.
fuzzy lollipop
2010-02-24 22:29:29
Accepting it as best answer for best effort, even if I was hoping in some more concrete techniques :(
Roberto Aloi
2010-03-08 21:42:02
+1
A:
One good way to protect your material is to make your web site the easiest way to get/view/access your stuff. Note that Apple makes millions of dollars selling MP3's on ITunes that are wholly unprotected, because it is easier for most people to grab them on Itunes than to find them on torrent sites.
Ultimately, you will not be able to prevent a determined user from copying and redistributing your material. The most you can do is try to slow them down. Whatever encryption method you end up using will require a key, and that key will need to end up on your user's computer. Therefore, a determined user will have everything they need to grab the content from you. What you can do is annoy average users enough that they decide it is not worth the trouble. However, there is a fine line to walk between annoying users enough that they pay, and annoying them so much that they leave your site entirely.
Peter Recore
2010-02-24 19:05:04
A:
For images, you can put in a watermark (translucent text over the image, but not very noticible, saying something like "© 2010 Me inc.").
Same goes for video files, but in video you could move it to make the process of removing it (which is already extremely hard) harder.
Presentations, I have no clue either, but you could always try having "© 2010 Me inc." at the bottom of all the slides, or on the BG picture.
In truth, there is no way to fully protect your files, but these solutions will do the best to slow down, and possibly stop the user from redistributing your work.
HiGuy Smith
2010-02-24 22:23:55
none of your suggestions actually answer the question of how to prevent redistribution.
fuzzy lollipop
2010-02-24 22:26:58
+1
A:
Nothing will prevent the user redistributing anything that can be downloaded to the local device. Very few will actually 'slow down' this either. Most all will inconvenience legitimate users completely.
Create compelling content and offer it for a compelling price. Those that see the value will buy it, those that don't see the value would never buy it to begin will so you are really losing anything.
fuzzy lollipop
2010-02-24 22:26:12