How to prevent downloading my ebooks and videos (and only allow viewing in members area)?

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Hey Warriors,

I was wondering how you all would prevent customers from downloading ebooks and videos in a members area? After they purchase the product, I want them to have unlimited access to the products in my member's area; however, if they return it they lose access to the videos and ebooks in the password protected members area. The only way they keep access to the product is therefore by not returning the product and keeping their unique username/pw in my member's area (so they can't just download the product then return it).

I also want to prevent copycat products from copying and pasting my ebooks so easily...


How would you recommend doing this? I've actually been thinking about ditching the .pdf format for the ebooks and instead turning them into webpages (where the webpage is harder for people to download) or embedding the .pdf into some kind of ebooks viewer in the member's area (so when people look in the source code they can't see where to download the ebook).

I've seen some people using .asp files to display their ebooks now but I'm not sure how that is used exactly (and I'm not a programmer) ...and I've also seen how people are using pop out/embedding options that prevent someone from seeing where the actual file is located...

Basically, whatever options I use for the videos and ebooks, I want this:


1) Can't be downloaded (so the member must remain an active member after paying to maintain access to the videos and reports/ebooks).

2) The ebooks can't be copy and pasted as easily.

3) The location (and therefore the download link) for the .pdfs (or reports) and the video files must be hidden in the source code.


Do you all have any recommendations for this? (also keep in mind that I'm not a programmer). Thanks a lot. I really appreciate any suggestions or help anyone can provide.
#programming #area #downloading #ebooks #members #prevent #product protection #protect content #protect ebook #protect ebook theft #protect your product #videos #viewing
  • I hate to break it to you, but it's simply not possible to prevent someone from copying a digital info-product. Even if you attempt to hide the URL's of the actual files... as long as the videos / ebooks can be "seen on the screen", they can easily be copied with screen capture software.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks for your response...

    I know they can be captured with a screen capture software ...However, typically the sound quality/video quality/or ebooks .jpg from screen captures looks/sounds bad. So I won't bother trying to prevent this...

    However, anyone else have any other suggestions for my original question?
    • [1] reply
    • Don't know where you heard that... as long as you use the right settings in your screen capture software, you can make the copies look every bit as good as the originals.

      The only thing you can do that might slightly reduce the percentage of your customers who copy your products, is to mask the real URL of the files using PHP (Google "PHP mask file location"). Even that is only going to prevent the laziest, least tech-savvy of the thieves though, because anyone who is even slightly tech-savvy will know how to find the URLs of your files in 2 seconds, using Firebug (or similar software). And for anyone who is not tech-savvy, they can just use a screen capture program.

      So in my opinion, trying to mask your file URL's in order to prevent people from downloading them is going to be about as useful as NOT locking the front door to your house at night, and then putting a sign on it that says "Attention thieves: this door is locked, so don't bother trying to come inside".

      My 2 cents.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Brandon is right, sorry.

    And with some software I can copy any video with the same quality as it is playing in my browser.
  • Screen captures aside, there is an easy way and a hard way. If you email out PDF's or make things that are easily copied and pasted, they will be copied and shared more frequently. If you make it a little more difficult, you deter a good portion of the people who would normally steal and resell your stuff on Fiverr etc. because they want to attach a simple PDF and not a video that's clearly branded as your creation.

    It's more about ease than technical capability... if someone really wants to share it, they still will, but many won't bother going through the trouble if the only way they could do it would be to screen cap an entire session, they'll spend their time on other products instead. Exposure will be reduced greatly.

    It also can prevent "sharing with friends" and help you better support your actual paying customers - if someone emails me, I don't know they were a buyer unless I manually look up every email I receive. By forcing Q&A through the same system where the files are hosted, you're at least able to monitor access attempts and if someone is leaking your stuff you'll be able to shut them down easier, or at the very least ignore their requests for help.

    Overall I think it's a good question and would like to see some answers other than "Don't bother"
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    • [1] reply

    • Hi Ron, exactly my thoughts. Thanks for your input. Anyone have any suggestions about this?
  • It depends on what your market it.
    If your customers are not that tech savvy you can, indeed, have a script that will do a check for logged in user. If the user is logged in then the file is served otherwise an error.
    I've created similar functionality for my membership site (running WordPress and S2Member plugin).
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • unfortunately... make every page a picture and break it up into pieces that fit together like a puzzle, but this can be captured and good OCR software -- yada yada... videos -- screen/audio capture software -- yada yada...

    simply make it worth their value not to cancel OR pirate!! <= the only solution, imo.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I was thinking of something like this:

    1. When a customer makes a purchase, their IP address is logged.
    2. Access to the system where they view the content is only allowed from ONE ip address - at first, the one they purchased from.
    3. If any other IP's attempt to access the content, the system doesn't let them in yet - it sends a confirmation email to the email address of the original purchaser, and requires they click a link to allow access. Only the IP address that clicks the link will be granted access. From then on, only that IP - the one that actually clicked the link - will be able to sign in and no others. The previous IP is dropped. This will prevent sharing the login, because only the last IP address that clicked the confirmation link that was only sent to the original buyer's email will ever have access.
    4. The content is served within the page via an ajax call, which also executes javascript that disables copy/paste and the printscreen button. You can detect that ajax is being used server side on the page that loads the content, so it will only return results when an ajax query makes the request (so users dont view source and post directly to ajax url).

    If the user disables Javascript, then the ajax query that requests the content for the page will never execute, so the page will be blank.

    Is it fool proof? No, no system is, but I think something like that would be troublesome enough that only a pretty decent developer would be able to copy it. Most of "us" here think like developers, but the people who are copying/reposting stuff on Fiverr aren't programmers and the hoops they will have to jump through will likely make it not worth it. The only way to copy the content this way would be to run a screencap of the entire session and share the video, which doesn't really fit the modus operandi for most content thieves.
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    How to prevent downloading my ebooks and videos (and only allow viewing in members area)?

    Hey Warriors, I was wondering how you all would prevent customers from downloading ebooks and videos in a members area? After they purchase the product, I want them to have unlimited access to the products in my member's area; however, if they return it they lose access to the videos and ebooks in the password protected members area. The only way they keep access to the product is therefore by not returning the product and keeping their unique username/pw in my member's area (so they can't just download the product then return it).