Basic Password Software

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

I am busy doing some training videos. I want to limit copying. I must presume that a disk can have a simple password screen before allowing access to the video files. Then I need it to change the password every 3 months. I in turn can email the users the new password. I have in mind that the password is the same for everyone. Of course they can still forward the password to each other.
I am not too worried about copying, but want to charge a monthly fee, hence my desire to have a method to cut off.
Also the password issue will be a useful feature to have, so that a trial period can be offered.
I was wondering if this piece of software is easily available at not too great an expense. Also any other basic ideas to protect my self would be appreciated.

The second piece of software is a test and mark feature. So a person enters the answers, multiple choice, and a mark is calculated whereafter a certificate saying sorry or well done is printed.

[tec0]

got this for you

http://www.mvoyager.com/

hope it helps

[AndyD]

What you're looking to do lies slap bang in the middle of several genres of software.
Encryption; This will add protection to a file to stop unauthorised access, a password is generally required. Encryption possibilities come with programs like WinRar where it will convert the files into a single compressed archive and you can add a security password.

DRM, digital rights management, is a system that allows for a certain number of views or viewing over a determined length of time before files are locked. Reactivation can be by password or license key.

Disk copy protection. Is a system that physically prevents the contents of a disk being copied or duplicated. This can be in the form of software such as dummy files that don't correspond to the file allocation table on the disk or can be hardware where the physical disk is jiggerypokeried with weak sector insertion to prevent ripping and burning. This is sometimes called passive protection.

Software licensing systems. These are systems that determine what users have what access according to the keycode they are given.

Note; disk security and DRM is protection only effective until the person with the disk finds a teenager to help him out, then it's game over I'm afraid..

Here's a 101 tutorial on adding making a copy proof disk.

You can always add a low level rootkit or trojan to the disk but this doesn't always go down too well with the users. Example

If the files aren't too big then maybe consider going thin client with everything on a website. This will make access control a lot easier.

Here's a DRM option but it might be cost prohibitive.

[daveob]

Another option might be to have a custom video player created and even renaming the video files with a different extension. Then you can binary join another file, like an intro video file, to the start of the training video. The intro file has an 'end of file' marker, so even if a user goes into the explorer window for your CD and copies and renames the file back to a video file, it will only play in a conventional media player until the first 'end of file' marker, which is at the end of the intro video.

Since you know the size of the intro file ( in bytes ) you can have your custom video player start playing from position 'x' in the file, which is directly after the first 'end of file' marker.

It's not absolutely fool proof, but is would make it a lot more difficult for the average user to crack.

Also, your custom player could control expiry of licenses, based on the PC's internal date, and to avoid a user keeping his PC on the same date, also track the number of times it has been used since the last renewal of the license.

[AndyD]

Are there custom player systems 'off the shelf' or are you suggesting proprietary software. If the latter it will be expensive.

There's many media players freely available for free that can identify a media file by it's bit structure and will ignore headers, and even the file extension itself.

VLC media player will not only play just about anything with its native codec set, it will also offer to reauthor the file to a compliant format recognisable to other media players.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

look, most people using the video will not be very technologically advanced (although they will probably have kids) i know that no matter what there ill be copying, there is always a way. I just want to make it a bit more difficult thna running copy off.

[AndyD]

If you don't like the web hosted option then I would just cut your losses and go with the copy proof disk method above.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

If you don't like the web hosted option then I would just cut your losses and go with the copy proof disk method above.

By web hosting do you refer to, the equivalent of a online, like a webinar?
Can this be done with a password controlled login? This is a good option for my home study market.
Only thing is what would the cost be, as it is video and it is maybe 4/5 hours?

[AndyD]

That's what I was thinking of. You can force login to access the site or even just certain material on the site. The cost I'm afraid I'm clueless about, at this point I would hand you across to one of the website/hosting gurus which I know are around TFSA.

It would probably help if you could give more details about the video content. How long is the video, I know you mentioned 4-5 hrs but is that one long video or is it multiple short clips? If it is one long one it might be better to split it up if you can. what file type is it, what file size is it, what resolution/quality is it? Would it work as a YouTube type setup? I don't mean on youtube itself but a similar setup on your own site. :-)

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

The total play time will be about 4-5 hours.
In all probability 5 modules of about an hour each.
It is possible for me to film/edit the modules with subsections.
The original idea is that the company would play the dvd on computer for teh trainees, without a facilitator. The video handles the facilitation by having the material, then every ten minutes or so the trainee reverts to the workbook. During this time the video runs, but without any action as such. After a set time, the training continues.
My business module is that the busines owner pays a monthly fee to use the video and obtains the work books from me(obviously nothing stops them copying the workbook) i do not want to sell the video straight as this market segement would balk at paying even R500 and the videos would be worth R2-3000, also obviously it saves me from selling all the time and I get an annuity style income. There are many franchises so hence the need for protection.
There is no contract, so owner can quit when they want. Hence the idea of a cut off. If I have a changing password, if they do make copies, this makes itslightly more difficult.
ALternatively, I could structure it that they pay per usage. This could be done with the live feed idea, if not too expensive.
The second part of the plan is to allow people to self train themselves and then have a better chance of gaining an interview or even a position. This segment I can either make a video that simply wipes out after say 2 weeks (one vicious virus???) or use the online idea. The drawback with the online idea is access to facility but i guess one cant have it all ones own way.
It is therefore possible to have small clips. ut lets presume the person needs to use an internet cafe, then they are there for at least a half hour due to the minimum time rule.
The other curve ball in the mix, is the ability for the dvd to play on computer and via dvd player. The dvd player version will not be able to be password driven, so that leaves the copying or self destruct idea. Perhaps I should make the video with a one or two month self destruct. It does mean I need to send a new dvd every two months, but I anyway need to get the workbooks to the client so it is not such a big deal and the cost is minimal.

I hope this helps to perhaps figure out a workable solution., Many thanks

[Dave A]

Just to point out that video over internet eats bandwidth, particularly if it is of a reasonable resolution...

[AndyD]

The total play time will be about 4-5 hours.
In all probability 5 modules of about an hour each.
It is possible for me to film/edit the modules with subsections.
The original idea is that the company would play the dvd on computer for teh trainees, without a facilitator. The video handles the facilitation by having the material, then every ten minutes or so the trainee reverts to the workbook. During this time the video runs, but without any action as such. After a set time, the training continues.

Sounds like it would be better to split it into the ten minute or so video segments so after each workbook session you start with a new video file. If this is hosted online, Dave is right that it will be fairly bandwidth intensive depending on resolution and framerate and the blank video sections during workbook exercises will still use bandwidth if it's one continuous file.

My business module is that the busines owner pays a monthly fee to use the video and obtains the work books from me(obviously nothing stops them copying the workbook) i do not want to sell the video straight as this market segement would balk at paying even R500 and the videos would be worth R2-3000, also obviously it saves me from selling all the time and I get an annuity style income. There are many franchises so hence the need for protection.

You will need to protect yourself from both the customers and franchisees who'll take you for a ride if they're given half a chance. The website with registration and passwords would be the way to keep yourself covered. You can deal with the registrations and access control from one central location.

There is no contract, so owner can quit when they want. Hence the idea of a cut off. If I have a changing password, if they do make copies, this makes itslightly more difficult.

You can watermark the video files so if there are copies around the users will be aware that they're copies. Watermarking is extremely effective and it's simple to add. It's also one of the more difficult forms of protection to remove. It won't prevent the files being duplicated, recoded, demuxed etc but it will always be there on the finished pirate copy which makes it risky for the distributor. For the user, the video alone is only of limited use without a workbook so they would need a pirate copy of both. You can always alter the layout slightly once in a while so the video needs a recent release of the workbook to be usable.

ALternatively, I could structure it that they pay per usage. This could be done with the live feed idea, if not too expensive.
The second part of the plan is to allow people to self train themselves and then have a better chance of gaining an interview or even a position. This segment I can either make a video that simply wipes out after say 2 weeks (one vicious virus???) or use the online idea. The drawback with the online idea is access to facility but i guess one cant have it all ones own way.

I don't know your market sector and the likelyhood of them having a decent internet connection. The video with DRM would not be my recommendation. It's expensive to implement and it's not teenager-proof.

It is therefore possible to have small clips. ut lets presume the person needs to use an internet cafe, then they are there for at least a half hour due to the minimum time rule.

Internet cafes are notoriously slow. They have a nasty habit of sharing a 4 meg line between about 10 terminals.

The other curve ball in the mix, is the ability for the dvd to play on computer and via dvd player. The dvd player version will not be able to be password driven, so that leaves the copying or self destruct idea. Perhaps I should make the video with a one or two month self destruct. It does mean I need to send a new dvd every two months, but I anyway need to get the workbooks to the client so it is not such a big deal and the cost is minimal.

A DVD player (standalone) and a DVD optical drive in a computer are two completely different animals. Without getting too technical, a DVD player is really dumb. It looks for VOB files on the disk and plays them. A computer DVD drive is far more sensitive to the structure of the information on the disk. The tutorial on making a copy protected DVD in this post capitalises on a computers inability to ignore non-compliant disk structure. This type of disk should still play on both a pc and a DVD player but it will be difficult for most to duplicate it.

All said and done, the workbook / disk combination works in your favour. Maybe look at replacing the workbook with an online version and have the videos distributed as a disk. It still makes the course a combination of hardware with watermarked video files on a disk and software with the online workbook this would still make for tight controls but it would need a website wizard to set it up with different user accounts and access levels etc. It might be better than the streaming video with users on snail paced connections. You could also assess your trainees progress according to multiple choice question sessionsat the end of each module. This might give the course more credibility in the eyes of a prospective employer if the trainees progress report is generated independently of external interference and can be mailed to a recipient as a pdf for example.

[tec0]

Well in all honesty there will be no possible way to stop people from copying your videos. Please don’t misunderstand me I am not trying to put you down but here are the real problems.

To encrypt a DVD is possible but there are load of decrypting software freely available.

Secondly with “youtube” type service you may be able to restrict users but you will not be able to stop them from “Recording” your video once registered and logged on.

Again as stated video eats bandwidth “especially in South Africa where you pay per 1mb” As for special players and header inscription. Yes you can do this. If you look at video games that have video files you will find that some of them are impossible to view with an external player. But again... The truth is if you can see it and hear it chances are you can copy it with ease.