Here is how to Protect Your Ebooks - most common question asked here

[radhika]

Ebooks are digital downloads. Everybody knows that. So easy distribution of ebooks with no control over it leads to loss of sales to the merchants by illegal pirated copies.

Common way of delivering ebooks is:

Buyer clicks on the payment link > goes the payment processor like paypal/2checkout/clickbank etc > pays > redirected by the payment processor to the web site to download the ebook. *This redirect url should be entered by the merchant in payment processor panel while creating the payment link.

So far it is basic and simple.

Now the following problem pops-up for the merchant:

* What if the buyer passes around the download page URL? or download link? Can buyer shares the password too?

* What if buyer distributes the ebook or print the ebook and give away?


* What if the buyer passes around the download page URL? or download link? Can buyer shares the password too?

- You need to make sure that download link should be accessible ONLY AFTER the successful sale. (Sometime back people used to add 'demo=1' in 2co urls and make fake purchases and download the product. But now 2co has few parameters in merchant panel which don't allow this)
- Hide the urls of the downloads.
- Control the access to the download link like number of days or clicks or whatever it is.
- Disable download link after successful download.

Any decent shopping cart would do all these. So before buying look for the above criteria.


* What if buyer distributes the ebook or print the ebook and give away?

This problem is after buyer downloads the product. For this you need to have few requirments implemented with the ebook as such.

- Disable printing of the ebook.
- Password protect the ebook.
- Brand it.
- Copyright notice.
- Some ebook creating software has a security feature like the ebook will be assigned to one computer only. It assigns a licensecode, so the ebook will open up on one computer only.


FOR EXE FORMAT EBOOKS:
http://www.ebookedit.com/ ( I used this. Very good)
http://www.marketingtips.com/ebookpro/

FOR PDF FORMAT EBOOKS:
http://www.brainloop.com/index.php
(I did a search on google. And got it. No experience with it)

http://www.secure-ebook.com/

BOTH EXE AND PDF:
http://www.ebook-security.com/index.html


Even doing all these, still the digital products are liable for illegal distribution by people. So hope for the best ...

.

[jlandells]

Radhika,

Have you considered eBook Pro? You can get it at:

www [dot] marketingtips [dot] com [slash] ebookpro (Not an affiliate link!)

and it covers the major details of what you're aiming at, as far as I know.

I'll be honest - I just rely on honesty and stick with a PDF, but if I could afford it, I'd buy this software for the ultimate protection.

-John.

[schabotte]

I stick with regular old pdf files because they are pretty universally understood. Once you start adding passwords, security features or use an ebook compiler (that may only run on windows platforms and could have install issues) you can create more support headaches for yourself.

Like it or not theft of info products has always been with us. When it was all paper and ink, people would photocopy the materials and return them.

Digital does make it easier - and unfortunately with things like torrent sites, errors in web coding that let the SE spiders get to your download pages, etc. you probably will find your work out there where others who expend the time and energy hunting around will find it for free.

I don't like it any more than anyone else but it is a cost of doing business.

Copying nowadays is just too easy - even for many physical info products. DVDs and CDs are a snap to copy and manuals - unless bound - are also easy to copy if one has an all in one printer.

But even so, most folks are honest and are not looking to steal your product.

[Christian Fox]

I might be wrong, but I am almost certain you can keep the spiders off of your DL pages with a simple robots.txt command.
I can't post links yet until I get 15 posts but Google it.
Make sure you keep them off of your DL pages and NOT your entire site of course.

[14pulsars]

Originally Posted by bigmark1972

I might be wrong, but I am almost certain you can keep the spiders off of your DL pages with a simple robots.txt command.
I can't post links yet until I get 15 posts but Google it.
Make sure you keep them off of your DL pages and NOT your entire site of course.

Using robots.txt as a protection measure is NOT a good idea. Not only is robots.txt a public document (it has to be, and it's location is always in the same place on a site), even if you don't disallow a single page, but a whole directory, it still gives a clue as to where your ebook is.

Assuming you want to make sure your page is not indexed by the SE's, i'd put a noindex meta tag on the download page.

[samstephens]

Originally Posted by bigmark1972

I might be wrong, but I am almost certain you can keep the spiders off of your DL pages with a simple robots.txt command.
I can't post links yet until I get 15 posts but Google it.
Make sure you keep them off of your DL pages and NOT your entire site of course.

This can keep most search engines from listing your pages (MOST - not ALL). Keep in mind that the robots.txt files are also human readable, and so don't list your actual download pages in it, otherwise you're giving away your location.

This is a very common mistake.

Keep in mind that even if the search engines don't spider your download page, then they can still spider a page that links to your download page, such as warez forums.


Robot.txt files can help, but they're only a tiny piece of the puzzle.

If you really are interested in security, then you need to check out a good quality download management system.

Good ones will also make managing your business much quicker, easier, and make your business look more professional to your customers. It's not just about security!

If you're interested, this is mine: DLGuard - Download page protector, create expiring download links

cheers
Sam

[Clark]

Never make a customer jump through hoops after they've made a purchase.

The better solution is to use membership site software to host the file for direct download inclusive of whatever bonuses that made the offer convert.

This way, you'll build an email list of "buyers" and also improve your retention rates when you advise that you'll be adding additional content in the days,months to come (well past the refund deadline

You can also build an upsell recurring business model when you have higher perceived value content to sell to your already happy customers who are ready to slide further through the sales funnel with you.

This way, you've created a happy customer and also a customer who will trust you enough to buy from you again and again without all of the technical roadblocks in the way.

Making a PDF doc the second incarnation of Fort Knox for technophobes isn't the best route for continued success on either side of the transaction.

[radhika]

Originally Posted by jlandells

Radhika,

Have you considered eBook Pro? You can get it at:

www [dot] marketingtips [dot] com [slash] ebookpro (Not an affiliate link!)

and it covers the major details of what you're aiming at, as far as I know.

I'll be honest - I just rely on honesty and stick with a PDF, but if I could afford it, I'd buy this software for the ultimate protection.

-John.

I know 'ebook edit pro' do this. But not ebookpro.

I updated my post with both links.

.

[JamesFraze]

You could also link all of your recommendations through a link you control, and profit from.

I'm not selling my script yet, but I have done this at Link Redirection Service

I wrote an ebook, with the hope it would be stolen often, and lead to more sales for me through the use of the book and products I recommend.

I use clickable.biz (but you can do it with a 301 redirect on your own domain) to route clicks to wherever I want (at the moment).

Example: http://wf.clickable.biz/hosting routes to the dreamhost affiliate link. If I find an affiliate program for hosting I like better, I can then change the redirect location and then all of my ebooks that are out there point to my new affiliate link. I use the code "wf" to track that this link came from "warrior forums" and I can setup infinite campaigns and links within a campaign as I see fit.

With proper link redirection to a domain you control you can do wonderful things with seeing how your product goes through people's hands. For example, if that user (user 123) suddenly clicked your book 400 times on a code tied to that user ... you would know who gave the ebook away and could hold them liable. A small disclaimer in the beginning could explain that you aggressively monitor theft (and persecute as necessary).

clickable.biz is not released yet .. it's just a script I wrote for myself, but if you want help setting something like that up I can probably offer up the "guts" of the code to you, or install it for you for a testimonial.

Let me know if this is too "self promotional" and I'll edit the post.

[Janet Sawyer]

You will never ever stop theives and scammers.

Once your product is in their hands they can do what they want.
The secret is not in the download security, it's in the licencing.

Barstewards abound in this online and off line world.

Just do all you can to protect yourself at whatever level you can afford at the time.

Domain control and download control is only the tip of the iceberg!
Secure Licence system is the only sure way.
Come on let's face it, even microsoft hasn't figured this out yet!

Just my 2c

Regards,

Janet

If you can't secure it, at least make it viral! -

[radhika]

Originally Posted by Janet Sawyer

Secure Licence system is the only sure way.

Yes. Sure it is a good way.

But the problem with (rather annoyance to the buyer) it is, every time ebook is opened by the buyer, it needs to connect to the internet. Though I listed this licensekey method in my post above, personally I think not fair for the buyer ...

Some ebook creating software assign a licensekey to a computer which doesn't need to connect to internet.

.

[kj95100]

Originally Posted by radhika

Ebooks are digital downloads. Everybody knows that. So easy distribution without no control over it leads to loss of sales to the merchants by illegal pirated copies.

Common way of delivering ebooks is:

Buyer clicks on the payment link > goes the payment processor like paypal/2checkout/clickbank etc > pays > redirected by the payment processor to the web site to download the ebook. *This redirect url should be entered by the merchant in payment processor panel while creating the payment link.

So far it is basic and simple.

Now the following problem pops-up for the merchant:

* What if the buyer passes around the download page URL? or download link? Can buyer shares the password too?

* What if buyer distributes the ebook or print the ebook and give away?


* What if the buyer passes around the download page URL? or download link? Can buyer shares the password too?

- You need to make sure that download link should be accessible ONLY AFTER the successful sale. (Sometime back people put 'demo=1' in 2co urls and make fake purchases and download the product. But now 2co has few parameters in merchant panel which don't allow this)
- Hide the urls of the downloads.
- Control the access to the download link like number of days or clicks or whatever it is.
- Disable download link after successful download.

Any decent shopping cart would do all these. So before buying look for the above criteria.


* What if buyer distributes the ebook or print the ebook and give away?

This problem is after buyer downloads the product. For this you need to have few requirments implemented with the ebook as such.

- Disable printing of the ebook.
- Password protect the ebook.
- Brand it.
- Copyright notice.
- Some ebook creating software has a security feature like the ebook will be assigned to one computer only. It assigns a licensecode, so the ebook will open up on one computer only.


FOR EXE FORMAT EBOOKS:
About eBook Edit Pro ( I used this. Very good)
Make money online selling your own eBook: Publish your eBook with eBook Pro

FOR PDF FORMAT EBOOKS:
Brainloop:Vertrauliche Dokumente konsequent schützen
(I did a search on google. And got it. No experience with it)

BOTH EXE AND PDF:
Ebook Security - Protect Your Ebooks from Piracy


Even doing all these, still the digital products are liable for illegal distribution by people. So do the best and hope the best ...

.

I will always contend that it is the marketer's choice to protect or not protect their ebook. With that being said, the best solution I have found for protecting ebooks is through -- secure-ebook.com -- This is a solution that offers a great level of protection, but is designed to be used as a viral marketing tool also.

This makes the passing around of one's ebook a positive thing and can ultimately increase sales.

For those that are determined to protect their ebooks ... this is another option.

Hope this helps someone,

Kelly

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by PerryMyk

The ideal way for a program to handle a .pdf file would be to insert the Buyer's PayPal eMail address in each page of the document – I know of no such system for WordPress.

I wouldn't call that ideal, to be honest. It is easily removed from the document.

[Sheryl Polomka]

I just released my first product with DLGuard setup for downloading my product. My customers have 72 hours to download the product and after that they can't get the link so this at least stops people from just handing out the download link or putting the link on a blackhat sharing forum.

True, they can still print it and give it away or just share their downloaded pdf's, but that will happen at times regardless I think.

I am very happy with DLGuard though and once it is setup it is very easy to use.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by PerryMyk

If the .pdf is generated from a .jpg (Picture of printer output) then it is impossible to get anything from the .pdf - its just a big bitmap.

I'll have to disagree. It is not impossible, and generating a PDF from a series of image files will create one seriously over-sized final document.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

I'm sorry Perry, but maybe we're talking about two different things here. I'm not certain what using images versus text in your PDF's has to do with preventing them from being pirated.

In addition, bear in mind that when using images vs text in a PDF your fonts won't smoothly scale for the reader and printed quality is limited to the resolution of the images.

[Tyrus Antas]

Some good advice, however for the majority of people, piracy is not a problem. If you're selling software though, then that's another issue.

As for disabling downloads after a number of clicks. Remember that people might use download managers that split the file in chunks triggering multiple requests. You also have failed downloads and newer attempts to re-download the product. The best bet would really be download available for a number of days in a certain url. A unique url for each customer, Then disable after the time limit.

Tyrus