Copy Prevention - Commonly Asked Questions
As the pioneer and the leading developer of copy protection solutions for the
Internet, the following questions and answers are provided as authoritive advice from those who have made it happen when and
where others claimed it be impossible:
Can web pages be protected from search and grabbers?
Yes. By detecting the visitor making the page request it is
possible to redirect them to another page or prevent the page
from displaying its contents. If you use
web page encryption then
unless the visitor passes your scrutiny, they will never be able
to access the page's content, that is unless the encryption and
detection relies on JavaScript which is too easily decoded. The
encryption and detection routines should be server side to
protect the resource and the encryption technique. naturally,
once downloaded to the visitor's web browser, the page and its
contents will no longer be protected unless you employ some form
of copy protection.
Can images and movies be protected from search and grabbers?
Yes. Any file on the Internet or your web site can only be
accessed if the visitor or search engine has a link to it. How
they usually get a link to it is by following links from page to
page and accessing links to other pages and your files. If the
link is published (on a web page or sent by email) then the file
will be accessible from the Internet. By using
web page encryption plus
detecting the visitor then the page can be prevented from
displaying it's contents. By using
link protection you can prevent direct access to files using
links that are not within your own web site.
Can documents be protected from search engines and grabbers?
Yes. Again the solution is to use
link protection or web page
encryption which can detect the visitor requesting the page
or link and prevent access to the content if unauthorized.
Whichever solution you do use must have the capacity to function
if and when JavaScript is disabled.
Can web pages be copy protected while
displayed in a web browser?
Yes. While the makers of web browsers make it increasingly
easier to copy and save web pages and their content, there are
many protective measures that can
be employed.
Can web page source code be
protected from plagiarism?
Yes. However it is usually JavaScript that users want to protect
as it's really the only code that is provided and accessible
client side. The html itself will be of no consequence so
not worth protecting. JavaScript can use encoding functions to
obscure and even encrypt its source code but being client side
any such protection may never be more than a minor obstacle to
anyone who really wants it.
Can files distributed by
CD/DVD be protected from copying?
Yes. They can be protected from saving and copy by almost all
copying techniques up to and including taking screenshots,
however to prevent the duplication of the file itself requires
more sophisticated protection than what is possible from within
the file. Files freely distributed that can be opened and viewed
from any computer regardless of whether they are connected to
the internet or not (for local viewing) at best will only be
able to prevent the extraction of their contents and copying by
Printscreen and screen capture... the file can can still be
forwarded onto others (redistributed).
Can files distributed
by CD/DVD be protected from redistribution?
Yes. There are some CD protection solutions that provide a layer
of security in the format of the disk itself, whether it be CD,
DVD or USB drive. The more secure of these solutions provide
specially prepared media (disks) and special software for disk
production. The method employed by these solutions obscures the
content by storing key information in segments on the disk that
are not usually interpreted by disk copying software. When
techniques like this are used for popular media such as music or
movie files, then software will surely be published to get
around even this most clever protection technique. Using a low
profile solution may survive longer.
But as usual once a file on a protected disk has been opened in
its viewing application or native program, then its contents can
still be copied unless copy protection is employed for the file
itself.
Also, once the file is opened it may be possible to copy the
file to another location (off the protected disk) for
redistribution by sending onward to other people. The only way
to prevent redistribution of files in this sense is to use a DRM
(digital
rights management) solution. Then even if they can get a
copy of the file, sending it o will be futile because the next
person will not be able to access it.
Summation
Copy protection, like any form of security or measure taken to
prevent theft or unauthorized use, can never be 100% secure.
Some say that "in that case why bother?" and others hope that
nothing was in their way to do whatever they want with the
intellectual property of others and your livelihood.
But why make is it easy for them. There is a lot that we can do
and most security measures that we can employ on the Internet
will protect your property from most Internet users (98%). Very
few, even those who may have the skills and know how, will want
to go to great lengths to get around your security, and if done
carefully your security measures can be so difficult to get
around that the effort required will not be profitable.
For the best and most secure of the possible solutions that we
have discussed here, you only need to look in the right hand
menu of this web page.
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