How do you protect your Clickbank Products from Illegal Downloads?

[yourreviewer]

Hello,
How can you protect your Clickbank products from illegal downloads?

Thanks,
Dan

[blur]

Do you meen illegal downloads from your store or illegally downloaded from other places? Stealing from your site or software being pirated across the internet?

[yourreviewer]

I was talking about people sharing the download page. But I would also be interested in knowing how you deal with cases where your products are shared in torrent sites.

[blur]

protecting the files from being shared across torrent sites s beyond me.

For protection against sharing the download page the only thing I can say is to use a shopping cart system in which users have to have a username and password to access their purchases.

Wordpress, joomla, and drupal have modules for this or you can use magenta, zencart, or any other shopping cart apps out there.

There is a learning curve to some of this, but it's worth it.

Wordpress has a few plugins for this as well as joomla and drupal.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

DLGuard. DLGuard. DLGuard. DLGuard.

[yourreviewer]

Thanks Dan. Would DLGuard also be helpful if I want to prevent any non customers from watching videos?

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by yourreviewer

Thanks Dan. Would DLGuard also be helpful if I want to prevent any non customers from watching videos?

That I don't know. I've only used it for protecting downloadable products.

[askloz]

yeah, use download guard DLguard dot com... Sam's support is above and beyond excellent,a lot of peeps could learn a lot from him in that regard

[Gary Mitchell]

Harvey Segals e-book "The Complete Guide to ClickBank" will probably answer your questions on this and I'm pretty sure it's free to down load.

You should be able to Google him, he's got a ton of information on "ClickBank".

Gary

[George Wright]

Hi,

Create a horrible worthless product and others won't see the need to share. Otherwise just move on and keep on creating GREAT valuable stuff. Oh yea and use things like DLguard and Warrior Pro and e-Junkie to keep honest people honest.

George Wright

[askloz]

LMFAO, yeah, and expect the refund rate go through the roof!

best bet is do create a CD, and give only say, 2-3 videos, PDF's etc while they wait for the delivery. ppl are less inclined to go through the process of copying the info to upload to the net.

Originally Posted by George Wright

Hi,

Create a horrible worthless product and others won't see the need to share. Otherwise just move on and keep on creating GREAT valuable stuff. Oh yea and use things like DLguard and Warrior Pro and e-Junkie to keep honest people honest.

George Wright

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by yourreviewer

Thanks Dan. Would DLGuard also be helpful if I want to prevent any non customers from watching videos?

Since your videos would be on a web page and not downloaded not sure if Sam's program can do that.

You can protect the page(s) that your video's are on but there is nothing from stopping them from downloading or recording them and passing them around.

I think anyone who offers you a 100% foolproof way is full of it. If they want your stuff bad enough they will get it.

If you start making your paid customers jump through hoops to use your products them you will just lose them...

[askloz]

Originally Posted by John Cabral

Since your videos would be on a web page and not downloaded not sure if Sam's program can do that.

yep, it can do that, but you'd need to search the forum for it, cos it can get a little tricky, but even still, ppl can still download those videos by using the firefox "download helper".

[samstephens]

Hi Dan,

I'm Sam Stephens, the guy who created DLGuard.

Yes, DLGuard will protect your Clickbank downloads, and it'll also allow you to have a membership page where you can display streaming video, if that's what you'd like to do!

There are ways to pinch streaming video - the only way to stop this is to never show the video to anyone. But putting the videos in a membership area will help a lot.

DLGuard can take care of the membership signups, cancellations, etc., and all automatically for you.

Let me know if you have any questions about this, as I'm happy to help!

cheers
Sam

[NMP]

How about CBProtect:
:: CB Protect :: The Virtual Vault Total Protection System

[samstephens]

Just a quick note: CB Protect is a "wrapper", and so it basically wraps your file into an exe file. So this won't help for streaming videos.

cheers
Sam

[NMP]

Ah ok

Actually I was looking for a software the could lock
each pdf to one computer, and block most screenshot
attempts. I know there is one or the other but have
not found one mixed yet.

Daniel

[askloz]

There is a way to do it, you can lock it to an email address, IP address, password, etc. Bit complicated though, but the instruction manual tells ya how to do it.

after running a search, i came across this site
Is there any software by which I can lock a .pdf document so that It is only openable who will have the password and also only openable in one IP address where I am sending :: Answer it on Indiatimes QnA

then ran a search for the name in that post

Google Search - Lizard Safeguard PDF Security

actual site i checked

Lizard Safeguard PDF Security Review at Free Downloads Center. Lizard Safeguard PDF Security the safe and secured tool that makes your PDF documents confidential.

Originally Posted by NMP

Ah ok

Actually I was looking for a software the could lock
each pdf to one computer, and block most screenshot
attempts. I know there is one or the other but have
not found one mixed yet.

Daniel

[CliveG]

I'm all for protecting content and have just purchased another Warrior product (QPPDownload) for a current project.

However, if you make life too difficult for legitimate users by, for example, locking a pdf to a single computer, you will lose sales.

Prepare for some rip-offs by making sure that your material includes backlinks and references to your other material so at least you will get some benefit from them. The chances are that you will not actually be losing much in the way of sales because these people would not have purchased your product anyway.

[John Cabral]

Ok as someone who has sold software when I started on WF I was worried about theft so I locked my $200 software to a single hardrive in attempt to stopt sharing of the software.

Looking back I think that hurt my sales.

I understand and can relate to those who are putting out products and wanting to protect it but at what cost.

Are you punishing your customers for actions of a few? Are you making them jump through hoops in other to use your product?

I read these things and see people looking for the 100% foolproof way to protect their products.

I have bought stuff that forced you to be online so it could check some server to see if my license was good. Ok but what happens if I want to use it and I am not online and it can't verify if I have a valid license? I can't use it. Or what happens if the server goes down? I can't use it. Guess what refund time.

If I buy something I expect to be able to use it any time I want without any restrictions period. Make me jump through hoops and I will ask for a refund.

I see people wanting to tie a product to an IP address but not everyone has a static IP address.

Listen if your product is that good guess what it will be hacked, your protection scheme will be circumvented and your program will end up in a P2P site. I know because mine was.

I see people trying to protect their $20 programs ebooks but I think you are going overboard.

Does that mean you use no protection scheme? No you should but just not at the cost of making a customer jump through hoops to use it.

And remember nothing you do is 100% foolproof.

Just my 2 cents as a programmer and customer.

[yourreviewer]

Thank you so much for chipping in. I will figure out a way to protect the videos.

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by yourreviewer

Thank you so much for chipping in. I will figure out a way to protect the videos.

Like Sam said their isn't anyway to protect your videos as long as you put them up on a page.

At least none that I have been made aware off. Good luck.

[fitzwar]

Is there any protection for sellers on click bank as i've noticed a flaw in click bank in that you can buy as many products as you like then a day later you can file for a refund and straight away without any investigation the buyer gets a refund. This annoys me greatly about there not being a seller protection or investigation. At least paypal have some investigation process.

[askloz]

You may be better off saying like... create X amount of videos, say 40 of them, and put 5 of them in the members area and put the entire course on CD and send it to them.

I'll be doing that with my products soon.

Originally Posted by yourreviewer

Thank you so much for chipping in. I will figure out a way to protect the videos.

[askloz]

Clickbank has just recently incorporated a "Admin to Customer" dispute section, ie, if you're not happy with a product and the admin doesn't care to reply to the person's reason for the refund, CB will issue the refund.

CB will monitor the posts between you and the admin of the product, now I dont know if they make effective decisions at the end of the day if admin and customer can not come to an agreement or not. I think there should be, like lame a** excuses should be refused. But if it's a really good excuse, then CB should just refund the person, otherwise, the buyer wont get a refund.

Originally Posted by fitzwar

Is there any protection for sellers on click bank as i've noticed a flaw in click bank in that you can buy as many products as you like then a day later you can file for a refund and straight away without any investigation the buyer gets a refund. This annoys me greatly about there not being a seller protection or investigation. At least paypal have some investigation process.

[ChrisDouthit]

I noticed on PayGear.com that they have built in securty for vendors. If you list a product there you have the option to secure the thank you URL. If you do so the customer is brought to the thank you page, but its hidden with a PayGear URL.

Vendor can then set the secured URL to last however long they want. You can make it so the customer must sign up right then or you can keep the link active for however long you want. Once the link expires it will then time out for the customer if they try to go back to it.

I use the feature, as long as no one knows your thank you URL no one can steal your product or pass the download page off to a friend.

[sanjid112]

Originally Posted by fitzwar

Is there any protection for sellers on click bank as i've noticed a flaw in click bank in that you can buy as many products as you like then a day later you can file for a refund and straight away without any investigation the buyer gets a refund. This annoys me greatly about there not being a seller protection or investigation. At least paypal have some investigation process.

I'm sure there are some terms and conditions apply for that. You need to check it out in help page, or asking the ClickBank for some explanations. But, my guessing, they must be still do some investigation about it, even if they say like that, since I never noticed it before.

-Malik

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by ChrisDouthit

I use the feature, as long as no one knows your thank you URL no one can steal your product or pass the download page off to a friend.

Your product is technically stolen the minute it is downloaded. It all depends on the integrity of the person buying your product.

[CliveG]

Originally Posted by ChrisDouthit

...

I use the feature, as long as no one knows your thank you URL no one can steal your product or pass the download page off to a friend.

This is not really an effective way to secure your products. Ideally, your product needs to be stored on the server in a location that is not accessible from the internet and then delivered on demand to an authorised person. There is software that will manage this process for you.

[SMS]

Digital theft is frustrating... very frustrating. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any foolproof way of protecting your digital products. I've tried a few schemes myself, but I am not convinced it's worth all the bother.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by ChrisDouthit

I use the feature, as long as no one knows your thank you URL no one can steal your product or pass the download page off to a friend.

How does this stop anyone from sending the product to anyone they like?

I always feel myself getting lost in conversations about this.

The basic problem seems to be "How, without using a ".exe" file, do you prevent people from sending your product by email to everyone they know?"

What's the point in protecting the download page if people can do that anyway? (Well, ok, I see there's maybe some point, but it's hardly an answer to the problem, is it?).

Maybe the answer to the problem is this "Locklizard" product kindly mentioned above.

Still, look on the bright side: at least we haven't had this phony "People who steal it weren't going to buy it anyway" argument presented yet in this thread. Maybe people are wising up about that one, now, and they're too embarrassed to try it out again.

[Raydal]

Just yesterday I was checking my stats and followed
two referrers links to forums where my product was distributed
free along with a ton of other internet marketers products.

There were even requests for other products sold by
people with deeper pockets than mine. If Microsoft
can't stop piracy I don't know how anyone else could.

Just a fact of life you have to accept.

-Ray Edwards

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by Raydal

Just yesterday I was checking my stats and followed
two referrers links to forums where my product was distributed
free along with a ton of other internet marketers products.

There were even requests for other products sold by
people with deeper pockets than mine. If Microsoft
can't stop piracy I don't know how anyone else could.

Just a fact of life you have to accept.

-Ray Edwards

Yeap not even the God of computers can keep his stuff from being hacked/cracked and on P2P systems why do we think we can do better.

Yes we should try to do our best to protect our stuff but in the end its all pretty much in vain.

You come up with one method they come up with 10 way to steal it.

Again if you make it hard for those that pay you setting yourself up for refunds and lost sales.

[ChrisDouthit]

My comments were in regard to protecting the thank you URL and illegal downloads. Which the secure URL feature in PayGear does do. No one can bookmark your URL, or post your thank you URL in forums, or where/however else they can spread the download link. You can also protect sign up URLs if you just need to protect a members area.

In no way does it protect someone downloading your product such as an ebook and then sending the ebook itself to friends. If you wanted to protect against that you can do so with a wrapper program which basically wraps your product with an exe file, users then must activate the wrapper to access the product. The admin can then deactivate the wrapper rendering the file useless if they need to.

There are downsides to this type of protection, it’s a pain for your users to go through the extra steps to activate the product and I dont think Mac users can access the product at all. But if you want more complete security it works. One site that performs this service is QuickLockPro.com

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by ChrisDouthit

I dont think Mac users can access the product at all.

They can, actually. I hear that "E-book Pro 6.0" (".exe"-converter) is now fully Mac-compatible and without Mac users needing to download any additional software or anything to use it.

But thank you for your answer.

[Christophe Young]

Yes, let me expand on the benefits of Ebook Pro...

I've been using it to sell my ebooks securely for a while now.. and guess what?

It's pretty close to impossible for them to be stolen and passed around. Also, NONE of my customers have ever had a problem receiving and downloading their ebooks. No extra hoops, no additional software, no headaches.

I like it so much that I wrote a review on it with all the details and even have my very own clever affiliate link at the end.

Check it out here if you like.

[showbizvet]

I use DL guard, also e-junkie.. To protect videos I password protect that post and/or page in WP and give out the un/pw to legitimate members. I'm sure the un/pw gets shared, but I can always change that.

Another to do is make certain you have one or several good referral links inside your PDF (assuming that's what you're selling), then if shared (and it will be) at least you have a refferal link inside.

[holla22]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

They can, actually. I hear that "E-book Pro 6.0" (".exe"-converter) is now fully Mac-compatible and without Mac users needing to download any additional software or anything to use it.

But thank you for your answer.

Have a look here on the sales page they state right at the bottom that it is not Mac compatible eBook Publishing Software: Make money online with eBook Pro

[Christophe Young]

Holla,

That is an older version of Ebook Pro and it used to not be Mac compatible. The latest version IS compatible... this is the version I'm using for my ebooks.

I guess they haven't updated the web site yet.