Avoiding Content Theft w/Digital Products

BradVert2013

10 years ago

Sadly, there's nothing you can do to preven someone from stealing your work. All those programs to lock and protect your work can easily be hacked. If someone really wants it, they will get it.

One way to be proactive is to offer your ebook for free for a limited time as a special promo. If its free, there's nothing to "steal."

As far as plagiarism goes, there's not much you can do to stop it except be vigilant and keep your eyes open. There's really no need to register your work with the copyright office as it's already protected as soon as you write it down.

Remember, if you make it too hard for people to buy your product, then no one will.

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dsuitor

10 years ago

It's a growing problem in our industry and I've honestly seen many services that can detect duplicate content but there isn't much you can do to presume a lawsuit. It just takes to much time and money to track these people down. Just have faith that people will be honest I know it's a long shot but there in no way around it. It will always happen.

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Ryan Jericho

Banned 10 years ago

Do a search. Plenty of PDF Protection software that dissallows opening on another computer, screenshot protection, copy and paste protection etc. Its not cheap though!

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pizzacashmon3y

10 years ago

There's nothing you can do about it. it's something you just have to accept as a cost of doing business.

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Matthew Trujillo

10 years ago

As far as many things you can leave your watermark on them, that way if it it gets hijacked it has your name written all over it, and anybody who uses it knows who the owner the item is. But as many have said this is bound to happen especially on the internet, your best bet in my opinion is to brand your items with your name as much as possible that way if anything your name gets around and you get known which in that case, can turn to be a good thing.

Good luck.

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creztor

10 years ago

Not much you can do. Setup Google to notify you on any phrases/sentences used in content you publish so you can at least track people who use it or you can watermark videos etc. However, the stuff is so easy to copy that there's no way you can stop it.

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AffiliateBlogger

10 years ago

Thank you to everyone who responded. I appreciate the input.

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Eric Lovelace 10 years ago

I have seen many use membership sites such as wishlist member to protect their content from theft, but in the end if the person really wants to get your content they will find a way.

Eric
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johnlagoudakis

10 years ago

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donhx

10 years ago

There is sme great advice here. However, I think you will be disappointed if you follow the advice of these two folks:

Originally Posted by BradVert2013

One way to be proactive is to offer your ebook for free for a limited time as a special promo. If its free, there's nothing to "steal."
.

This is the opposite of real life. You want to charge as much as the market will bear. That way, someone has to pay for it, even the thieves. Never give you work away for free.. that's how the thieves get their inventory.

Originally Posted by johnlagoudakis

First, a copyright notice is no longer needed to be covered by copyright. However, it is advisable to include it, especially when you have registered your copyright with the US Copyright Office. Adding "All rights reserved" is legally meaningless these days.

There is no gain for you if you do not actually register your copyright because you cannot get damages in court unless it is registered with paperwork and fee paid. If you make a legal claim against anyone for infringement, they will ignore you unless you can supply a registration number.

I am not a lawyer, so get the details straight from the source: U.S. Copyright Office The FAQ there provides reliable, accurate, helpful information.

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BradVert2013

10 years ago

Originally Posted by donhx

There is sme great advice here. However, I think you will be disappointed if you follow the advice of these two folks:

This is the opposite of real life. You want to charge as much as the market will bear. That way, someone has to pay for it, even the thieves. Never give you work away for free.. that's how the thieves get their inventory.

For some products, that might be true.

For digital products, namely ebooks, not so much. I can't tell you how many free ebooks I've read over the years and then went on to purchase their other books from the same author.

The problem is the market is SO saturated with ebooks, unknown authors can't afford to charge "what the market will bear," which according to Amazon's business model, is about $9.99/ebook. Not many will fork over hard earned money on a new author who just self-published his/her first ebook, unless that author has a large following from something else. That's the "real world."

The biggest problem authors face these days is obscurity, not piracy and theft. Giving an ebook away for free breaks down that barrier and people won't be afraid to take a chance on an unknown author. Many authors I read these days will write an ebook series. The first ebook in the series is free. They then charge a fair price for the remaining books in the series.

Authors like JA Konrath have even encouraged people to share his ebooks by taking the DRM (digital rights management) out of the file. You know what happened? Sales skyrocketed. He's making a great living.

Further, how can a thief steal something if it's already free? Who are they going to sell it too if people can get it for free directly from the source?

How are the thieves going to "pay for it" if they're stealing? Isn't stealing taking something without paying?

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donhx

10 years ago

Originally Posted by BradVert2013

For some products, that might be true.

The problem is the market is SO saturated with ebooks, unknown authors can't afford to charge "what the market will bear," which according to Amazon's business model, is about $9.99/ebook. Not many will fork over hard earned money on a new author who just self-published his/her first ebook, unless that author has a large following from something else. That's the "real world."

Sorry, doesn't look like we're going to agree on this one.

In the real world, people are forking over money for ebooks every day. According to Forbes magazine, Amazon is selling $5.25 billion in books a year, 30% of them are ebooks. That's a huge market, so people are forking over the money.

The only ones who are not getting paid are the ones who are following JA Konrath's advice. There are plenty of ways to get visibility ("a platform" as it is called) without going the free/99 cent route. All the wannabe writers are giving away their work but the good ones, the ones who understand book promotion, don't need to do that. The competition is at the bottom of the heap, not the top.

If you have a worthy book, fiction or nonfiction, and can promote it properly, you will succeed. Publishing was a highly competitive field long before Internet days and will continue to be exactly that in the future.

Also, it is a logical fallacy to suggest that people can't steal something that is free. They are stealing the author's intellectual property rights. Not only will they steal the freebie, but they will also steal the paid ones that follow. That's what they do! Better to get paid for every copy possible.

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tpw

10 years ago

Originally Posted by donhx

Sorry, doesn't look like we're going to agree on this one.

Until you hit that last paragraph, I had agreed with both of you. :p

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donhx

10 years ago

Originally Posted by tpw

Until you hit that last paragraph, I had agreed with both of you. :p

I see your point. While what I said in the last paragraph is still largely accurate, the greater truth is that people steal from themselves when they give their stuff away. That could be the worst thing of all!

People need to quit giving their work away in hopes of getting sales later. Instead, they need to write well, promote well, and get paid for every book.

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tpw

10 years ago

Originally Posted by donhx

I see your point. While what I said in the last paragraph is still largely accurate, the greater truth is that people steal from themselves when they give their stuff away. That could be the worst thing of all!

People need to quit giving their work away in hopes of getting sales later. Instead, they need to write well, promote well, and get paid for every book.

You should never trade your work for free in the name of HOPE.

You should only give away your work for free, WHEN it is part of a proven marketing plan.

There are times in which we can give stuff for free, to create an audience, but that is pointless if you are giving it away for free with no mechanism to make money from that free item later.

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donhx

10 years ago

Originally Posted by tpw

You should never trade your work for free in the name of HOPE.

You should only give away your work for free, WHEN it is part of a proven marketing plan.

There are times in which we can give stuff for free, to create an audience, but that is pointless if you are giving it away for free with no mechanism to make money from that free item later.

Well, I think that is my point. At least partly.

Tens of thousands of ebook authors are giving their books away for free and not gaining an audience. They give their books away to build a audience that never materializes.

I think there is a new breed of ebook hoarders. There is a glut of free ebooks and people download them but never review them or recommend them to friends. I question whether they ever read them.

Like I said in earlier posts, giving your ebook away for free to gain a market is futile. There are far better ways to gain visibility as an author, and when you do it in other ways you get paid for every book. It is important to get paid.

By the way, one way to get visibility is to have a popular blog or do guest posts. Give away stuff (article, chapter, etc) in conjunction with your blog or guest post, but never give away your book.

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AdamPayne

10 years ago

I am sure if the black hat guys want it, they will find a way. But I also think it is far less common than folk think.

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danits 10 years ago

Hi,

As I learned from my own experience, you can't avoid thefts in 100%.

The best approach my company is taking is to not make it easy to steal my content, and for that I am using a membership plugin (Wishlist Member).

People can still copy-paste my content and spread it for free,even if it's protected, but I also discovered that people are too lazy for that in most cases

Some of the content we are selling as paid posts using a pay-per-post feature (we sell mostly guides) and some we offer in a close membership with new content added on a regular basis.
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angel43110

10 years ago

You could make the pdf only viewable online and have it behind a membership login...

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BradVert2013

10 years ago

You'll be fighting an uphill battle. And honestly, if your digital product is really good, plenty of people will be more than willing to pay for it.

Even the Harry Potter books were pirated, long before JK Rowling released them in ebook format. Within a few hours of a new release, a free digital version would be available for download on the web. It just took one person with a high speed scanner. And here's the kicker: it took Rowling years to warm up to the idea of ebooks because she was afraid of piracy.

Anyway, don't let that fear stop you. Be vigilant, but know sooner or later it will probably happen. Deal with it then. Again, there are always plenty of people willing to pay for a good product.

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Sarevok

10 years ago

What does Microsoft, Apple, the Hollywood Movie Industry, and the United States Government have in common?

They've all failed at keeping their digital content safe from hackers pirates and blackhats.

Maybe you can do better?

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Michael Ayton

10 years ago

If you are selling your digital products via Wordpress you can use a few different plugins that offer PDF stamping and Digital Product Licencing keys which can attempt to reduce the theft of your digital content - Best of luck OP!

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Deucedriver

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Michael Ayton

If you are selling your digital products via Wordpress you can use a few different plugins that offer PDF stamping and Digital Product Licencing keys which can attempt to reduce the theft of your digital content - Best of luck OP!

Do you have any suggestions for these plugins? Sorry to piggyback on this, but I'm not looking to specifically prevent theft, but to give a limited time period for my subscribers to download a specific product and to make the download unique to them.

Thanks in advance.

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talfighel

10 years ago

Once you publish your content online, there is no way to protect it.

There will always be people who will take some of your content and copy it so that they make it their own.

No matter how many security features you add, they will always find a way to steal your stuff.

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Gene Pimentel

10 years ago

#1 Anything that can be displayed on a computer monitor can be stolen.
#2 The trick is not to attempt the impossible (protect), the trick is to leverage your content. Add links in your product to encourage opt-ins and further product sales.

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tpw

10 years ago

Watch this video. It might give you a different point of view on this issue...

Neil Gaiman on copyright piracy and the Web. [VIDEO]

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sethczerepak

10 years ago

Originally Posted by AffiliateBlogger

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with digital products and measures for keeping them safe(r) from theft/plagiarism etc.?

I will be releasing a digital product soon, and I'd like to know if anyone has ideas/experience regarding anti-theft measures. Ebooks are out (PDF), unless there's something I don't know... I've read that Kindle has a high incidence of outright theft and repackaging.

I've had articles, pages, other products reproduced in the past, so I'm looking to be proactive.

What about membership sites (3rd party software or services) like Wild Apricot. Beyond right click disabling, what can be done to discourage theft?

I will be registering a copyright, but that's hardly a deterrent.

Ideas appreciated.

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AB

Mail it was a physical product. Higher perceived value. If you're going to deliver it online, protect it under a membership site and send a small portion of it my direct mail.

Require them to mail it back to get a refund. That'll discourage serial refunders.

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shadeofinfo

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sethczerepak

Mail it was a physical product. Higher perceived value. If you're going to deliver it online, protect it under a membership site and send a small portion of it my direct mail.

Require them to mail it back to get a refund. That'll discourage serial refunders.

I agree with the concept and love the physical product factor of it because it is a way to protect your products ultimately ... but it really is also a hassle to be in the states and have to physically ship a product to someone in Tanzia or something. Digital products provides us with such simplicity and ease of just having them order and immediately get it onto their computer.

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sethczerepak

10 years ago

Originally Posted by shadeofinfo

I agree with the concept and love the physical product factor of it because it is a way to protect your products ultimately ... but it really is also a hassle to be in the states and have to physically ship a product to someone in Tanzia or something. Digital products provides us with such simplicity and ease of just having them order and immediately get it onto their computer.

True, and with that simplicity and ease of just having them order and immediately get it onto their computer, comes the risk of serial refunds. With physical products, you can sell at higher price points. In many cases, 500 to 1,000 times higher. It's simply a question of which benefit you'd rather have.

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shadeofinfo

10 years ago

Unfortunately I don't believe that there's nothing that can be done about it. Ebooks are horrible easy to copy, regardless if you put protection on it to not have them copy and paste it, there's still programs out there that can unlock it. As for Kindle, I'm not too sure but I'm pretty sure there's a way for your content to be copied that way as well.

It's honestly sad that it happens but as or right now, there's nothing that could be done. Even if you do a membership site, I found, people can still find some way to steal your stuff.

It's frustrating.

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robvegas626

10 years ago

I've been selling digital products (mainly through Clickbank) since 2006, and recently I've been using a service called DMCA Pro which, for $97 per month, will scour the internet constantly for links that are illegally sharing your digital products. They will then issue DMCA takedown notices. They send you a report every week or couple of weeks, showing all of the links they were able to remove. I was shocked at how many links they were able to shut down! In the first report I received, there were dozens.

You can also send them any illegal links you come across, and have them handle getting the links taken down.

However, the bottom line is that these digital products are impossible to protect completely. My philosophy has always been, a person who is searching for torrents to download your product for free would never have paid for it in the first place.

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AlisonM

10 years ago

Definitely a membership plugin (I've heard good stuff about wpmemberchamp) will avoid illegal downloads.

However if someone downloads legitimately, they might (for whatever reason) choose to be naughty and share your content - there are many forums and download sites that facilitate this.

A suggestion is to include links to your products, sales pages and perhaps affiliate links within your product. So if other people are (illegally) helping to distribute your product, at least you could benefit from the traffic.

Kind regards