Context

I'm planning to create coaching videos for my badminton website, and offer them as subscription service.

The idea is to release a few short videos every month, and charge a small amount of money (say, £3 a month) to subscribers. I'll probably offer a free trial for the first month, but require a full sign-up to access the trial. If a subscriber takes no action to cancel the account, then he will be charged subscription fees automatically once the trial period expires.

I'm essentially following the subscription model of badminton.tv, but I believe I have a few competitive advantages over them. Of course, they have advantages too, such as easy access to international players and a head start. But that's the nature of competition.


My questions

How do I protect my videos from mass copying? If I leave them unprotected, then it only takes one bad customer to ruin my entire business model by sharing the files on forums and so on.

I understand that no copy-protection is 100% secure. Perfect security is a theoretical impossibility, at least in this context. But that's not the point. It's a matter of making the videos secure enough to reduce my risk to sensible levels. It's like locking the door of your house: a burglar can still break in, but it's more difficult than if you had left the door wide open and a sign saying, "I'm out, so now would be a great time to steal my stuff. There's cash in my filing cabinet and my wife's pearls are hidden inside a fake can of shaving cream."

I guess I'll need some kind of Digital Rights Management. There are essentially three security issues:

1. Prevent copying/redistribution of the videos
2. Prevent account sharing
3. Prevent "infinite free trials" (register with a different username, and start another free trial)

I don't mind a small amount of account sharing; but potentially, one member could organise account sharing for 100 other people on a forum. Therefore I must have stronger security than a primitive "is this user already logged in elsewhere?" test.

Should I keep the content streaming or allow DRM-controlled downloads? Should I use WMV or Flash? How much will I have to pay for the different options? Any other thoughts? I'm really completely new to this, so all suggestions are welcome.

This post has been edited by MikeHopley: May 24 2008, 07:24 AM

I have a client that is selling a video online and we went with https://www.payloadz.com/

See if this service would work for you.

Thanks Linda. I'll take a look.

Maybe you can include the wmv in a flash movie. Also you can think about using "Coupon codes" or something, that you have to enter to view a movie, and maybe set a max of "5 times viewing" and/or "1 month active" or something. When "coupon" expires, not possible to view it anymore.

Things like that maybe?

For issue #1:

If you create it all in a Progressive or Streaming Flash player, people won't be able to just download the video since it is being referenced from within the flash file, unlike some of the options. (quicktime and windows media).

As for the other two options, it looks like this has already been addressed. :-)

How would they be viewing the vids, direct streaming or downloading?

If the latter then you screwed basically, pretty much all of Lynda.coms videos can be downloaded if you know where to look

Would this defeat tools such as WM Recorder? It claims to be able to record Flash. I suppose I could test it myself against my main competitor, which uses streaming Flash.



I haven't decided this, but I'm leaning towards direct streaming. For a start, I intend to integrate these videos tightly with my free content (text). On the other hand, I like the idea of being able to offer high-resolution downloads (this could be a competitive advantage). Hmm...

I suppose that allowing downloads makes it much easier to copy my videos. Before you can break the encryption, you need to get the file onto your computer...

I wouldn't really know how to do either but i would go towards the streaming. I no it may be a bit of a hassel at times but it just takes one useer to upload them and then there available for everyone.

Yes, that's what I'm thinking too.

I shall find out how much Adobe's Flash media server solution costs.

I would think of the money you have to pay as a necessary overhead, and by paying whatever amount of pounds will, in the long run, stop you losing money

Also an article here that you may want to read

http://all-streaming-media.com/streaming-m...aming-video.htm

I'm inclined to agree; but there are limits to how much I can afford to invest. I suspect that this solution will be within my price range; but I always get nervous when they don't publish a price on the website.



Oooh, thanks for that. Food for thought!

1. Prevent copying/redistribution of the videos



Yeah, this solution seems like the best option. Since you are referencing the video within the flash file the only way for them to get the video would be to decompile the swf which would require a good deal of flash knowledge or a paid for software application.

2. Prevent account sharing

The link Linda provided to a site called payloadz is a good option. Another one is to record the IP address and only allow access to say 3 IP address per account. That would fix account sharing.

3. Prevent "infinite free trials" (register with a different username, and start another free trial)

I guess you could again use the IP address to insure that this person is not taking advantage of your free trials.

Thanks Jacob, that's good solid advice. It's sounding more achievable that I had thought.