Forum Moderators: not2easy
That said, the information contained in this ebook will definitely be very valuable and without question a unique resource when it hits the web. To make matters worse the ebook will only be about 60 pages so not too difficult to just copy by hand. I've tried to explain to him that there's no way to truly protect the content from being copied but he is insistent that he wants to proceed. That said, he's asked me to help figure out the best way to minimize the pirating that takes place.
Solutions we've considered
1) Printed Booklette - Instead of making it available on the web, we'll print it out which isn't too expensive and sell it that way. Downside of course is that it's easy to photocopy and we don't know much about the booklette once it's sent off.
2) Shockwave/Flash - Making the guide available via a website so that it can only be viewed in flash and thereby cannot be cut and pasted. We could then also track access to the area via IP.
3) Login Based System - Same as above except not using flash where we control access to the guide on the site. Would be ideal if it couldn't be cut & pasted or printed.
None of these scenarios seem ideal to me. I'm worried that someone is going to get the content and we're going to be chasing ebay auctions with stolen content, fighting against duplicated sites, and worse perhaps even losing some of the $4k contracts because free info was given.
Are there any solutions I haven't thought of or issues not yet considered?
Thanks,
Chris
You work with a conversion company such as Lightning Source and they set up the files and they are then available through sites like Amazon.
The files theoretically can be hacked -- and of course someone could sit down and transcribe the content out of them, but I think either of these systems is SAFER than print. Any printed booklet can be photocopied with greater ease than it takes to copy files that have been protected by a good Digital Rights Management (DRM) system.
The files theoretically can be hacked
First, I believe you mean cracked, not hacked.
Second, it is far from theoretical. It is actually quite trivial, especially PDF.
Something we learned in the early 80s software business was that copy protection tended to annoy legitimate users of software and did almost nothing to slow down those that even had a passing interest in pirating the software.
Every time I worked on software and the suits decided to go with a copy-protection scheme we ended up losing sales.
You work with a conversion company such as Lightning Source and they set up the files and they are then available through sites like Amazon.
copy protection tended to annoy legitimate users of software and did almost nothing to slow down those that even had a passing interest in pirating the software.
This is something that's been nagging at me as well. No matter which way I look at it, I don't see any way to really protect the content from being copied (especially considering it's only 60ish pages so could easily be retyped). Couple that with the fact that the content is going to be quite valuable (and expensive at $500) there's a lot of incentive to copy.
What I've been toying with is the idea of using the booklet as a teaser into landing a full consulting contract. By giving enough information that the booklet is valuable in itself but not quite enough that it would devalue the consulting would be the ideal. If we figure out a way to throw a strong brand into the ebook, then even the stolen copies might work to our advantage if they entice a new lead. Legit sales we could offer a % discount off of the consulting fees to cover the ebook cost.
Any other thoughts or suggestions? At this point we're still just brainstorming.
Though PDF and LIT files CAN be cracked/hacked, I labeled this as a theoretical problem because from what I know about ebooks being sold via sites like Amazon and ebooks.com, very few ACTUAL problems with pirating have cropped up--the DRM system is pretty robust. That's a different system than password-protecting a file, as you know.
Of course, since most ebooks sell for less than $20, there is little incentive to pirate them. There would be considerably more incentive with a $500 file (though even then, you do see expensive documents with specialized business information being sold on Amazon).
Having said that, the teaser idea makes sense to me if there are any concerns about information leaking out.
Perhaps I'm just paranoid or clueless on how to prevent such a thing (entirely possible), but I would not want to take that chance—to see something I'd worked very hard on showing up on P2P networks or being "shared" on someone else's site.
Like the other replies have mentioned, there is *no* way of preventing the book's content being copied.
But that isn't the issue here. You're right in thinking that the booklet should be a "teaser". You've got to look at the book supplementing the contract work, not potentially replacing it. After all, the contract work will be tailored to the client, whereas the booklet will be a lot more generalised.
An example: I can't afford for Jakob Nielsen to do a usability study of my ecommerce site. If I had the money, I probably would pay for it. But I can afford the $140 for his ecommerce book. The difference is that the $'000s will be spent on reviewing my site, whereas the $140 is a set of guidelines. Both are useful, but are aimed at different levels in the market.
Though PDF and LIT files CAN be cracked/hacked, I labeled this as a theoretical problem because from what I know about ebooks being sold via sites like Amazon and ebooks.com, very few ACTUAL problems with pirating have cropped up--the DRM system is pretty robust.
The reason that there are few actual problems is that people are basically honest, and are willing to pay a reasonable sume of money for your work. I'm sorry, but ROT-13 is not real encryption.
As for any other DRM, give me a legal copy of the reader and an ITP and I, or anyone else with a knowledge of assembly language, can make all the copies we want of any DRM protected media that the software can read. I don't, but I could.
Don't place your trust is any system where the "keys" are stored within the program.
Christopher C,
I think you are right by making it a teaser, and trying to even make the pirated copies work to your advantage. If those pirated copies of the ebook can increase the primary market, the consulting, then you come out ahead either way.
Piracy can, in some circumstances, increase bo6th your market share and your paying market.
In the early 80s I worked for a company that produced some office software. Everyone other than the head of marketing understood that our market was to sell to businesses. And it was cool with us that people took our product home and put it on their home computers, and swapped it at schools and users group meetings. The businesses still *bought* the product, and that was who we sold to.
We owned the user base, and that user base controlled what the companies would buy.
After I left, new management came in and got all wound up about "all the money we're losing" because of all that pirated software. They went to the copy protection that the head of marketing wanted and sales of new products started a steady decline.
There are two ways of looking at this:
1) I want to get paid for each and every copy.
2) I want to make the most money from this that I can.
You have every right to choose either 1 or 2. And a lot of people that choose 1, think that they are also choosing 2, but generally they are not.
Then you would say that those selling valuable business information via copy-protected ebook formats on Amazon are foolish?
yosemite,
PDFs can and usually are set up as free-floating files that can be easily shared and copied. The PDFs you saw being shared either were never copy-protected or, as BigDave explained, had been cracked.
Then you would say that those selling valuable business information via copy-protected ebook formats on Amazon are foolish?
They are only being foolish if they believe that the copy-protection actually keeps someone from copying what they wrote.
They are also foolish if they think that copyright protects their "valuable business information", when in fact it only protects the particular presentation of that information.
What selling those ebooks on amazon does do, is to make you money that you would not have made otherwise. I would generally call that smart.
Would you say that it is foolish to sell a paper book now that things like photocopiers and scanners are available?
Selling a book makes you money. Not selling it does not make you money.
DRM is indeed an interesting concept and I can see why hunderdown is such a proponent. It does seem to provide pretty good protection of something that is inherently very easy to copy. While far from foolproof, at least against the layperson it does provide some excellent protection.
For those interested, here is a good article I found that summarizes DRM and digitial copyright protection. [kcoyle.net...]
In the end, I think this time I'm leaning more towards BigDave's school of thought and going with that "teaser" idea. Namely, no matter how solid the anti-copying measures, the price/content in our instance provides too much incentive to copy. The layman can simply retype the content while an expert could hack it. In either case the end result fully accessible content circulating the web.
At any rate, in the end I'm not the ultimate decision maker on this so we'll have to see what happens.
Cheers,
Chris
