How to protect your products?

by Akky
27 replies
Hey guys,

Anyone knows a site which will generate username for each file a member downloads? Like license key for the products . Any idea? I would like to have it for my pdf files.


G'day,
Akhil
#products #protect
  • Profile picture of the author alexei_aus
    check this out Protectedpdf: Video Tour

    is it really worth it with your file to protect it?
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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    Being a person who likes to keep things simple, I think having a password for each copy is unnecessary (This I can see will trigger a chain of customer support questions). What you can do is to protect your download page from prying eyes. One way to do is easily and cheaply is to use e-junkie. I just wrote a review today and you can read it here:

    Why E-Junkie Has Become My Favorite Payment Processor and Shopping Cart? — AbelCheng.com

    IMHO, you should focus your efforts on more productive stuff.

    In a larger perspective, there are many pirated DVDs around but filmmakers still continue producing movies. Same goes to software.
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    • Profile picture of the author scole954387
      Originally Posted by abelacts View Post

      Being a person who likes to keep things simple, I think having a password for each copy is unnecessary (This I can see will trigger a chain of customer support questions). What you can do is to protect your download page from prying eyes. One way to do is easily and cheaply is to use e-junkie. I just wrote a review today and you can read it here:

      Why E-Junkie Has Become My Favorite Payment Processor and Shopping Cart? -- AbelCheng.com

      IMHO, you should focus your efforts on more productive stuff.

      In a larger perspective, there are many pirated DVDs around but filmmakers still continue producing movies. Same goes to software.

      I completely agree. Without you even knowing it, having your product being shared can be beneficial because someone who downloaded your product from a torrent site might like your product so much they buy other things from you. I've experienced this first hand.

      Worst case, the product is shared among people who would never buy a product in the first place, so you still haven't lost money.

      Concentrate on selling your product and making more money. Don't waste time trying to prevent people from stealing it.

      Shannon
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  • Profile picture of the author stevenh512
    Protecting the download link doesn't stop people from "sharing" copies of the actual PDF file.. and PDF password protection is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

    I think the ideal solution would be "stamping" the PDF with certain unique identifiable information (say, the purchaser's real name and email address) on the server when the file is downloaded. It might not discourage "casual copying" but someone might think twice before putting their real name and email address on, say, a Warez forum or Rapdishare where it could be picked up by any number of spammers and scammers. Not to mention if the author gets ahold of a pirated copy they have irrefutable evidence proving who originally leaked it (and if it's a monthly subscription service.. like, say, Angela or Paul's backlink packets.. the author knows who to stop sending the PDF files to).
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    ProtectedPDF is good but wayy outta my budget I want to limit the reader access to one computer. So it won't be readable for another person and therefore sharing won't occur. What Steven said is awesome, we must include the complete payment details in the ebook at the last. Like the payee's phone number, email id, name, etc. This would be awesomer , e-junkie has enabled this thing, but I am currently using aMember. So, any one has the solution?
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    • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
      First, if you want autmated password protection, then you should use either DLGuard or Amember. Second don't put passwords on the actual file... put a positive spin on it, by making people register to receive access to their product.

      There are probably a dozen or so programs that do this. Basically you can protect your product with a zip file, and when the person unzips the file they are prompted to submit their name and email address. I believe some even mention submitting the paypal email address they purchased with.

      Some of the programs that facilitate this are Boomerang List Builder, Zip Brander, etc. and I am sure there are plenty more copycat programs like them with varying features. Those are just the two that come to mind. Zip Brander is a Russel Brunson product and Boomerang is created by someone else, but I can't remember exactly who it was.

      Hope that helps.

      Dennis
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    Hey Dennis,

    Thank you very much. I guess I can protect my zip files with that zip brander. I'll check it out ASAP
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    Just a random guy. Learning Ruby On Rails at the moment.

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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    Akky, in that case, you might consider ebookpro by the late Corey Rudl.
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    abelacts,

    Do you know something like protectedpdf? ebook pro wont accept paypal when paying .
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    Just a random guy. Learning Ruby On Rails at the moment.

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    • Profile picture of the author FasTrack-Eddie
      Banned
      DLGuard 4-my-Money.

      Has never let me down 4-sures !!!

      >wink<
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    I would like to hear more replies from you warriors , What about something like machine limit. Like the user can use the pdf only on one computer , Is that possible in any way ? Please lead me in the right way
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    • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
      Originally Posted by Akky View Post

      I would like to hear more replies from you warriors , What about something like machine limit. Like the user can use the pdf only on one computer , Is that possible in any way ? Please lead me in the right way
      Not that I know of.

      It would need to create a registry key on a persons computer, and check for that registry key every time it was opened. You could do it, but not with a PDF file.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexkandr Krulik
    Hi!

    I have developed license server to protect my software(some IM tool) it checks computer hardware and validity of license. The idea is that buyers will download not PDF file but small piece of software like viewer for pdf files but it will be well protected and contact license server to check license. Also we can control if they use the software on different PC- we can prohibit or limit it also.
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    Magic Article Rewriter and Easy Backlinks. The best time saver tool in niche.


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  • Profile picture of the author stevenh512
    Sadly, PDF files don't support a "machine limit" or anything like that. The best security Adobe offers is the good old "screen door on a submarine" (password protection).

    I'm looking into (for my own use, and possibly a product to sell in the future) a way to stamp PDF files at the point of download with the customer's real name and email address, but the problem is I want to do it in PHP and the only solutions I've found so far require one of two things:

    1) PHP's PDFLib extension installed on the server (A lot of hosts don't support this, depending on the host you may or may not be able to talk them into installing/enabling it for you.)

    2) Actually building the PDF from an HTML source file on the server (This can be done in pure PHP, no need for PDFLib or anything like that, but who really wants to build all their PDFs as HTML? Personally I'd rather work with Word or OpenOffice for PDFs and save the HTML for what it's meant for, web pages.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    Steven,

    ProtectedPDF.com does the machine limit thing on PDF, it's a really powerful software from what i've seen on their site. But It's $1200 yearly ($100 per month).

    G'day,
    Akky
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  • Profile picture of the author SeanSupplee
    The thing is anyone can honestly take a PDF file or anything you put out there and turn it into their own and give it away for free or sell it as their own. There is always this issue out there and always will be. A simple membership site that only allows IP access by 3 or less is enough of a protection for your products I believe. I would say don't worry so much about protecting your data on overkill and spend more time building your product up into a launch and out there in front of people so they get excited about it and want to pick it up right now. Your going to be far more successful spending your time in this area instead of overkill on protection of your product.
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  • Profile picture of the author adi.c
    E-junkie's PDF stamping feature was developed keeping two things in mind. First, customer's experience should be streamlined. Second, discourage people from copying the PDF files and sharing it with others.

    DRM may protect your product but it is not viable for a merchant because of many issues such as poor buyer experience, unsupported by PDF readers and additional customer support issues for the merchants to handle .

    I am simply reiterating what Steven and Akky have said above that PDF stamping will not only keep your buyer's experience the same but also discourage buyers from sharing the product.

    Let me know if you have any questions.
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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    1. Create 2 versions of the same ebook - one is full edition, second is promotional - first 10 pages + 11-th page with "buy full version here" link.

    2. Setup membership site where members will get access to your ebook via YOUR-SITE/premium/ebook.pdf link.

    If full member will click: YOUR-SITE/premium/ebook.pdf - he will see full version.
    If visitor/non-member will try to access *the same* URL: YOUR-SITE/premium/ebook.pdf - he will see promotional version.

    Full members will be able to read ebook and print it right out of their browsers. At the same time sharing links with "friends" will not work - non-members will see only promotional version of your book. It will work to your advantage in many ways:
    - You'll get SEO benefits from indexing of your "promo" edition on Google automatically.
    - You'll get minimal amount of hassles for paid people - no annoying protections embedded anywhere.
    - You'll get protection against sharing of direct downloadable links.

    Of course some premium member could always go through trouble of copying, saving and then spreading your ebook around - but that's the fact of life. At least you covered your bases to the best.

    Also advantage of membership site approach would be the ability to have access to "updates" for members.

    PS: software at my signature does all above.

    Gleb
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    • Profile picture of the author Christophe Young
      I would also recommend Ebook Pro. I've been using it for a long time with no problems.

      1) Download links (Mac and PC) are automatically emailed to buyers after Paypal Purchase along with username and password.

      2) You can limit the number of times a person can register your ebook with each username and password. This prevents people from sharing them or makes it useless. I usually limit registrations to two. This means each unique username and password can only be used on two computers.

      3) No need to protect download links as they are emailed privately to buyers.

      4) Ebook Pro works on all computers. I've never had a customer email me with problems related to the software.

      5) Most importantly, you can deactivate a customer's ebook if they ask for a refund. You have to be connected to the server to open the ebook. Sure, they can print it up before asking for the refund but that's the only way of cheating this particular software.

      I'm sure there are others but I like this one. I also like the stamping idea for PDF documents. That could work.
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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    PS: I just added these new features to MemberWing that might be of interest to membership site owners and digital product sellers.
    In particular - the ones who are concerned about protection your digital property:

    * Digital download protection - link sharing to downloadables of premium products won't work any more.
    * Automatic substitution of premium downloads with "promo" materials when free visitors (non members) click on download link. Great for promotional presentations, website visitor stickiness, SEO and portal visitor engagement.
    * Theft protection (TraceFusion). If premium member/buyer illegally shares or distributes your PDF ebook or any digital product anywhere - and you found copy of such product on internet - you'll be able to find exactly who did it and when. I think lots of membership site owners will find this feature handy to crack down on content thiefs and misbehaving members who joined your site to get a "group buy" (1 pays, 50 buddies share it).

    The way theft protection works - is that any premium material that leaves your site is automatically, invisibly and digitally signed with identity of the person who downloads it. And if this person is member - the copy that he gets will have his name, email, IP address, date time, etc... engraved into invisible and encrypted digital signature.

    All these features are automatically "on" - zero configuration - no tweaking required. If that sounds handy - feel free to ask me questions.

    Gleb
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  • Profile picture of the author rhelaine
    not sure it is really worth it to do that kind of thing.

    Tho it might be a good marketing point.... This ebook is so secret that we had to protect it or something like that....

    Make it a feature not a hassle.
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    • Profile picture of the author dave830
      Akhil,

      This may not help you, but I've found that if someone REALLY wants to share your ebook, they're going to find a way to do it, despite all the hoops you set up.

      I'd rather spend my time putting bounce back offers in the ebook itself- free bonuses for registered members only. This way even the people who dishonorably get your ebook are compelled to come back to you.

      Just some food for thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    There plenty of people who want the product but they'd search torrent sites first. If not found - then they do buy it.
    I experienced that first hand.

    Second - there are private communities of people that do "group buys". 1 pays - 50 gets it for 1/50 of a price. Closing this loop hole *would* and *will* let seller to earn a good chunk of extra cash that otherwise would be lost. Stompernet and many famous marketers are losing tons of cash due to that - and I know it for a fact. If it's just a matter of installing plugin to avoid that leak and make extra thousands $$$ - it should be no brainer.

    Gleb
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  • Profile picture of the author rhelaine
    if the product is digital then there is NO WAY to protect it period.
    if the book as a password then transmit the password.
    If the book does an online check then copy the content.
    If you have very hard ass DRM then people will not buy it because it is too much of a hassel.

    If people want to share the thing they will share it. As simple as that.

    The music and movie industry burn through millions and millions of cash trying to prevent that and they failed miserably.

    I maintain that it is better to educate the customer, give them freebies with the key you provide or stuff like that. but locking the product is not a solution.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marc Jager
    If you're talking about pdfs, doesn't pdf professional allow you to set security options (like only open on one computer)?

    I was curious about this myself as I tried to use and and to date still haven't figured out how to get it to work
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    • Profile picture of the author billmyers
      i ahve a nice software system that puts your pdf 'inside' a secure installer which verifies itself every time the pdf is viewed. It essentially locks itself to one PC with a license system and automatic serial code generation.

      Trying to protect the download page is just a waste of time, as soon as someone actually buys your pdf, they can simply share it.
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      • Profile picture of the author techuse
        Originally Posted by billmyers View Post

        i ahve a nice software system that puts your pdf 'inside' a secure installer which verifies itself every time the pdf is viewed. It essentially locks itself to one PC with a license system and automatic serial code generation.

        Trying to protect the download page is just a waste of time, as soon as someone actually buys your pdf, they can simply share it.

        What is it called?
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