Protecting my download page

[sarahstaar]

I am putting a product on clickbank and want to protect my download page.

My download page is already on a blackhat forum , HELP !!

What is the easiest way to protect my download page.....

[Jesus Perez]

Send the BlueFart forum a DMCA letter. They'll pull the thread within 2 days or so.

There's nothing you can do about the sharing on BlueFart forums. If someone downloads and then purposely uploads there is no software to prevent this. Especially if it's a book.

How to Remove Your Stolen Products from Hacker/Warez/Download Sites...

[Cyrus]

easiest way is to use DownloadGuard

[javanz07]

yup, you can try dlguard.com.

[Jesus Perez]

DLGuard only helps if they're sharing the link to the download page.
If they're uploading the book itself, there's nothing that can be done except hope for the DMCA letter.

[awesometbn]

Is it not possible to wrap your ebook or digital document in another program that restricts access based on serial numbers matched to customer contact information? Perhaps a free solution using GNU Privacy Guard or a commercial solution like digital rights management? When I was taking some online classes at college we used PDF files that were loaded with certificate files from the school. They were designed to only allow a single student access, for a specific period of time during the semester. I'm sure you could look into a solution from Adobe DRM that would accomplish this.

[sarahstaar]

I only want to protect my download page.

so the easiest way is to use DownloadGuard.


My product is video and PDF but i don't want to get into the hole DRM thing.

[sarahstaar]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

easiest way is to use DownloadGuard

I can not find the site for DownloadGuard , or did you mean DL guard ?

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by sarahstaar

I can not find the site for DownloadGuard , or did you mean DL guard ?

yeah i mean DLGuard - Download page protector, create expiring download links

[G Singh]

You can try this its by another Warrior, and its affordable. its called qpp download

Soft Launch of QPPDownload - Sell and Deliver Digital Products Quickly and Easily

Good luck

[Shane Hale]

.htaccess the download folder and disallow folder in Robot.txt send password to your purchase opt-in response.

[samstephens]

Hi Sarah,

I'm Sam Stephens, the owner/developer of DLGuard - DLGuard will do exactly what you're asking:

At the moment people have shared your download page on a forum (which is really common), when you use DLGuard, each download URL is unique to that one customer, and it'll expire in the time you set.

This means they can't share your download URL.


There are cheap/free ways that people do recommend, but they don't actually protect you.

Robots.txt files should never be used to "hide" download pages, because all it does is tell people where to find your download page - remember, humans can read those files too.

So never put anything secret in a robots.txt file.

Yes, you can put passwords on your download folder using htaccess, but what you'll find is that instead of pasting your download URL on a warez forum, they'll paste your download URL and include your password next to it.


If you have any questions about DLGuard, or about how these things work, let me know - I'm happy to help!

cheers
Sam

[sarahstaar]

Hi Sam,

this sounds like what i need. My products are video based so i might have 20 or 30 items to download , can DLGuard work with more than one download ?

[sarahstaar]

I don't think you can ever beet the pirates , but you can compete with them.

Offer your customers regular updates and tips and emails discounts on new products etc, make this clear in the product , there is more to come etc , someone who had a pirate copy might buy a copy then.

[sarahstaar]

I am just in the process of putting my product on clickbank and i think i will use DLGuard

[samstephens]

Hi Sarah,

Yes, DLGuard can list as many products as you wish on the one download page, with all of the links secure. So you'll be fine with your 20 or 30 videos - there's no limit!

And thanks for your support, Sarah! If you need a hand with anything, or have any questions about setup, please let me know - I'm happy to help!

cheers
Sam

[samstephens]

Hi Nathan,

You're right, people can purchase your product, get legal access to it, and refund, and then share it. It happens, and this is why I also recommend that if you're selling software, you should also use extra protection, such as a phone-home system.

DLGuard also allows extenal software to query them with customer information, and will reply as to whether or not that customer is licenced. This is great for software developers.

As you said, PDFs, videos, audios, etc, have their own issues as you can't protect them after the sale.


Does this mean you should ignore the first line of defence? Not at all.

When I leave my house I know someone can break a window and climb inside. It doesn't stop me locking the front door, though.

Likewise, the existance of file sharing sites shouldn't deter people from locking the front door of their website.

Why throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.



Download link sharing, as well as search engine "hacking", are huge issues in themselves.

Why? Because in some countries it's not even illegal. Take Sweden, for example, which is why the Pirate Bay torrent site lasted so long - it's illegal to pirate, but it's not illegal to point people to where they can get pirate products.

This is why download link sharing is so common and easy on warez forums, and it's how the warez forums manage to exist: because they take the stance that it's not illegal to point people in the direction of download pages, as they're not actually hosting anything themselves.

The people doing the pirating often take it a step further - many of them actually believe that if someone doesn't secure their download page, then it's perfectly acceptable to take their product...after all, if they didn't want people to take it, why didn't they protect their download page?

It's messed up thinking, but most people on warez forums actually believe that.


Can people still pirate your product by buying it legally? Yes - otherwise how would valid customers get their product from you?

But as Sarah said - why make it easy for them?

cheers
Sam

[worlok]

Put links back to you and perhaps your other offerings into your ebooks so at least they might virally get you more sales to makeup for the thefts.... that and this download guard thing....

[Robert T Jillie]

Using the <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> in each download page may keep them from being indexed and subsequently stolen but….

If your products are being shared by legitimate customers i.e. people that have purchased you products and then choose to post your product on the web so anyone can access it then you should be using something like DL guard.

However, if your products are being stolen directly from your download page you should first make sure that you have taken the following security precautions:

1). Make sure you Zip your download files especially PDF files and place all download files in a password protected directory.

2). Make sure you place an index.htm or index.html page in every folder.
- If you don't create an index.htm or index.html file, anyone can directly access the
root directory of the folder where you store your downloads.

Example: you store all downloads in the following directory: profitonthenet.net/download/
If you go to that link you can see every file in that folder/directory.

If you add an index.html to the download directory and use a meta redirect in the
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=placeyourwebsiteurlhere">
</ head >

Any would-be thief is directed back to whatever link you specify in the meta tag

It’s also a good idea to name your download directory something unique like 0u812 instead of downloads ore dl-bin.

These are just a few basic precautions that everyone should take to protect their products.

[dave147]

If your host is using cpanel then you could also do this:
In Cpanel click on "Index Manager" > click on your domain > then click "no indexing"
do the same for your other folders within your domain. Now your files listings will not show up.

[Steve Diamond]

Originally Posted by nicheGoober

change the name of download page to something which can't be guesses easily.

No. Believing that this helps is one reason why so many pirated products are being shared so freely. People will find your download page anyway.

To Sarah and all other ClickBank vendors, you can protect your download pages (CB calls them thank you pages) very easily and securely with a snippet of PHP or PERL or C# code that ClickBank gives you on a silver platter on their Vendor Tools page. You don't need DLGuard, though it will give you additional security and tracking capabilities, with ClickBank.

I don't know why so many ClickBank vendors seem not to know about this.

Part of the problem may be the CB doesn't tell you exactly how to use the code on that page I referenced. Here's the rest of the story, done in PHP, since that's supported by nearly any web host.

First, log into your CB account, go to the My Site page under Account Settings, and enter a Secret Key in the Advanced Tools section.

Second, change your thank you page's filename extension from htm or html to php. Then add this at the very beginning of the file, before the DOCTYPE line (if there is one) or before the html tag (if not):

PHP Code:

<?php
function cbValid()
{ $key='YOUR SECRET KEY';
  $rcpt=$_REQUEST['cbreceipt'];
  $time=$_REQUEST['time'];
  $item=$_REQUEST['item'];
  $cbpop=$_REQUEST['cbpop'];

  $xxpop=sha1("$key|$rcpt|$time|$item");
  $xxpop=strtoupper(substr($xxpop,0,8));

  if ($cbpop==$xxpop) return 1;
  else return 0;
}
if (cbValid() !== 1) {
     echo("Sorry, you don't belong here.");
     exit;
}
?>

Where it says YOUR SECRET KEY between single quotes, put the secret key you created in step one.

That's all there is to it. (And notice that 80% of that code is just copied from the CB page.) Now re-upload your thank you page and try to access it in a browser. If you just go directly there, you'll see the "Sorry, you don't belong here" message. Only people who have gone through the actual sales process will see the download page itself. You may want to test this out first by creating a new product that's the same as the old product but with a different thank you page (using this new version) before you replace the thank you page for your existing product.

I hope this helps someone. Any CB vendor who doesn't do this much to protect their stuff ought to have their head examined, IMO. It's very easy.

Steve

[Raiel Schwartz]

Steve, although your post is informative (and best of all free) you can't protect every product 100%

It would be a waste of time to try to fool-proof your system to the point where you are manually verifying orders. Why? Because you will be wasting so much time, time that can be used to make you more money.

Simple protection is ALWAYS necessary, but going gun-ho in order to stop every pirate will be impossible.

The most expensive and "crack-proof" software eventually get leaked, if someone wants to get something for free - they will find it.

Focus on protecting your product, but not to the point where it wastes your time. DLGuard is a viable solution, so is the technique Steve Diamond posted above (if you happen to use Clickbank).

Besides that, you can always offer your product by e-mail after your customer purchases (if you have GetResponse or Aweber you can easily create a "buyers" list and have the product sent to them by that).

If you secure your download page, and deliver by e-mail, you will be safe for the majority of product thievery - however, once someone downloads your product, they can always upload it to torrents or warez forum, so you will never be 100% safe, and it wouldn't be worth your time to try to be. Get as many visitors to your site, and convert the people that are interested in buying what you have to offer, instead of wasting time on freebie-seekers who are only downloading your product because they found it for free (in other words - they probably were not going to buy it in the first place).

[sarahstaar]

Hi Steve,

this sound like i should give this a try,

OK so you can only access the thankyou page if you have been through the clickbank payment process. What happens if the customer wants to download the products the next day and bookmarks the page will they still be able to access the page ??

[sarahstaar]

Can my download page just be an awebber form ?? do clickbank allow this ??

Originally Posted by Craig.Michaels

Steve, although your post is informative (and best of all free) you can't protect every product 100%

It would be a waste of time to try to fool-proof your system to the point where you are manually verifying orders. Why? Because you will be wasting so much time, time that can be used to make you more money.

Simple protection is ALWAYS necessary, but going gun-ho in order to stop every pirate will be impossible.

The most expensive and "crack-proof" software eventually get leaked, if someone wants to get something for free - they will find it.

Focus on protecting your product, but not to the point where it wastes your time. DLGuard is a viable solution, so is the technique Steve Diamond posted above (if you happen to use Clickbank).

Besides that, you can always offer your product by e-mail after your customer purchases (if you have GetResponse or Aweber you can easily create a "buyers" list and have the product sent to them by that).

If you secure your download page, and deliver by e-mail, you will be safe for the majority of product thievery - however, once someone downloads your product, they can always upload it to torrents or warez forum, so you will never be 100% safe, and it wouldn't be worth your time to try to be. Get as many visitors to your site, and convert the people that are interested in buying what you have to offer, instead of wasting time on freebie-seekers who are only downloading your product because they found it for free (in other words - they probably were not going to buy it in the first place).

[Steve Diamond]

Originally Posted by sarahstaar

Hi Steve,

this sound like i should give this a try,

OK so you can only access the thankyou page if you have been through the clickbank payment process. What happens if the customer wants to download the products the next day and bookmarks the page will they still be able to access the page ??

Sorry, but I'm not entirely sure. I think the answer is no. This would have to be tested. And I actually think that no is the answer you would want. Here's why.

First, there's a distinction between protecting the download page, which typically contains one or more links for downloading products, and protecting the download links themselves. This method from CB will protect the page but not the links. DLGuard can protect the links as well, which is why I wrote earlier that DLGuard gives you extra security.

With DLGuard, e-Junkie, and similar scripts and services, typically each customer receives a limited-use link for each product. The limits can be configured so they have, for example, 4 download attempts in 48 hours. Once either limit is passed, the links won't work anymore. That will prevent download links or pages from being shared, as they would be useless.

The idea that a customer ought to be able to bookmark the download page and have perpetual access to working download links is asking for trouble.

Steve

[jcaviani]

The best you can do is slow down the theft. The minute you commit your ideas to any format besides your mind, it can be stolen.

As for download protection, it's a good idea and some forms are better than others. However, don't be lulled into thinking you are really protected. You are protected from the lazy and less industrious, but I have seen EVERY product in the IM marketplace available somewhere for free.

Notice - for all you who think obfuscating your URL like domain.com/utirutythgjkd/euejdjsjs.html is a good idea, please be aware that there are all kinds of toolbars out there with varying capabilities. Indexing such a link can result from something as simple as someone with a certain toolbar going to the URL or someone linking to it from somewhere. I see this mistake being made repeatedly. Some marketers need to get a bit more tech savvy.

As a systems engineer, I am asked all the time the sure way to protect yourself when using a computer. The only sure way is to disconnect your computer from the internet and turn it off. Similary, if your ideas are that good and you really want to control them, the ONLY sure way is to never let them leave your possession.

A certain amount of theft is part of doing business. Make sure your most sensitive intellectual property is never put at risk by never exposing it to anyone except those that need to know.

[athibaul]

My opinion is that everyone selling eBooks should consider at least a minimal protection, a protection that will prevent most people from getting your eBooks for free.

Depending on your targeted audience, many of your clients might not even know about peer-to-peer or that they could try to get your eBook for free. But they will be able to search for keywords related to your eBook and if your download page get listed in the search results, they will get access to it. And, no matter how honest people are, if they get your download link, even if they were not looking for it, they will download your eBook without paying for it.

Scripts can be used to protect download pages, in PHP or other languages, but not everyone is familiar with this technical stuff. It could be more effective to use a product or service that would do this for you instead of trying to learn technical stuff that are usually used by programmers.

Many eBook authors are having hard times building their Web pages and configuring everything to sell eBooks online. So considering using programming scripts might end up in a time consuming process that might not even give the expected results.

Alain,

[4by8air]

I have been using DLGuard for a while and it works very well. It takes a bit to get started, but once you get your first product setup, it is great. I highly recommend it!

DLGuard will create a unique page so that nobody can copy your stuff.

[Rezbi]

I know I'm coming in a bit late, but wouldn't the butterfly marketing script protect the download page?