Copy Protection for CD-DVD's

Glort

I'm looking for a cpoy protection for Cd's and DVDs I burn of images.

Looking this up in the search engines the uninformed/ out of date answer seems to be " You can't do it".
I appreciate I can't lock up national secerets with total security but there does seem to be some programs out there that do add a level of difficulty to copying the disks and that would be sufficent for my purposes.

Does anyone know of or have any experience with these programs and can give me a heads up on them?

run_kmc

Do you mean, for example, that you could give someone a data DVD with JPEG images on it, have those images be viewable, but also have some sort of protection on those images rendering them unable to be copied to a hard disk or any other drive?

Glort

run_kmc wrote: »

Do you mean, for example, that you could give someone a data DVD with JPEG images on it, have those images be viewable, but also have some sort of protection on those images rendering them unable to be copied to a hard disk or any other drive?

I was more thinking of straight out copying to another disk but the point you raise would probably make circumventing the disk to disk copy very easy.

Snowgirl

This is beyond my technical expertise; but would it make any difference if you used RW (rewriteable) disks vs non?

Art Scott

there is a whole world of different ENCRYPTION available out there....here is a small smattering of results from a search for encryption for Encrypting disk media..... http://tinyurl.com/4fs5qq8

I have used this program when making Flip Page albums.... http://tinyurl.com/4bkl4b9

run_kmc

Software can have safeguards built in to check for the presence of an original CD or DVD, but if you are talking just image files, if they can be viewed, then they can be copied no problem. The only way around this would be to write your own special image viewer that can read a new image format that you have invented, and putting the copy protection in the viewer. I would estimate that to cost in the hundreds of thousands of American dollars.

Rhuarc

Nero burning program supports something called CPRM. It is basically a flag that you check when you burn the disc that allows one copy to be made by any given burner. This would help to prevent actual copies of the disc being made, but there is nothing to prevent them from just copying off the files onto th hard drive.

There are of course ways you could encrypt the image files and require they get a password to unlock them, but then they would be open to use. There would be ways in theory that you could set up some sort of online server system that they would have to log into prior to accessing the disc. You would have to have a program on the disc that would check to see if they had validated online, and then if they had it would let them view the files through a dedicated viewer while the actual disc content would still be encrypted. This is getting really complicated though, and would require a huge effort in programming to get something working.

Snowgirl

This would be why I don't give disks with images on them, and only supply low-res, discretely watermarked versions for the client's use on Facebook or whatever.

I know all of the arguments about giving the customer what they want and that today many expect e-images on some form of portable media - but it really depends.

For example, I did an engagement shoot locally for a couple whose families are 1000 miles away and that's where the wedding was to take place. I did give them a DVD with print-ready images to take with them when they moved away so they could get them printed at the other end of their journey - but they paid a substantial premium for that service. The DVD contained one file with high res, edited images ready to print at 8x10 and another at 5x7 plus a separate file with the electronic low res watermarked images for email, Facebook etc.

If the price is high enough for your time and services to shoot and edit - who cares? But if the price for shooting, editing etc. is too low and one hopes to make a profit on the prints - no way.

I'm actually looking at changing my model this year - but we'll see.

Glort

Thanks all for the feedback.

I'll definately look into the thing with the nero as I have that and it sounds the simple sort of thing I want.

Really I'd just like to say that the disks are copy protected and if someone tries it, any sort or barrier is likley to dissuade the greater majority of the target audience going any further.

I'm sure some will and think they are clever when they are able to make copys but as Snow alludes to, I'll be making enough money not to need to worry about it to omuch but I also don't want to shoot myself in the foot by giving them the go ahead by not having anything at all to stop it.

I think for the most part the way I will be selling them will be the best safegaurd but I also want to make them think twice about cutting the rug from under me the next time.