hi all.
I will shortly undertake a new website. this will have a shopping cart, and the products are sounds and videos, all downloadable.
I would like to give buyers option to preview the material, but not really sure what is the best way to do this. I mean I want to stop anyone from being able to just preview the files and use those files. the product belongs and is developped by my customer so naturally it has to be protected. I have seen a few sites with video or audio where at least right away it wasnt obvious to me how I could have saved the material if I would have wantedto.
Can anyone give me advice on what type of solution is best suited.

Thanks
sami

Google Video and MSN Wallop wrap their respective sound and video files in a shockwave flash wrapper and play them thru their own custom flash flash player(s)... If a user was to try to "save as" they would only save the .swf file which is merely a pointer to the true sound or video file whose true file name is obfuscated using an on-the-fly generated and encrypted file name...

This will dissuade if not prevent the "average" user from saving the file but experienced users will still be able to find the file in their temporary internet files as well as - it took me less than 30 minutes to crack Google's encryption alogorithm and I am this -> <- close to finishing a javascript bookmarklet that will allow me to save any Google Video with one click...

That being said - I would not advise offering full length "previews" of the copywrited content... What you should do is offer a small sample clip which would not be worth saving... Besides, not many people will agree to downloading and installing a custom shockwave flash player just to view your previews - I refuse to do so with even Google Video, sans the need for me to find a way to download and preview their clips locally on my machine where I have more control and can ascertain what it is that I am playing...


.....Willy

hi willy
thanks for the reply.
thats exactly what I was fearing, alltough I wasnt sure if there was technology available for "super safe"previews. I did feel strongly that any downloadable material is in jeopardy if it can be viewed on your pc..
Still hoping to find another solution alltough you have affirmed my beliefs..
thansk
sami

yeah the easiest way would be to convert a small clip to flash, most of the average viewers will have flash or would install it, you ofcourse don't need to go as far as creating your own custom player, just place the preview flash file on the preview page.

or just give a very small preview or the real file?

tricky one really isn't it

hi
could you look at this site for example:
http://maf.fi/

on the left it "says musiikki-truetonet" (in the purple box.
these seemto be flash files, and look quite secure to me.
Does anyone have a clue how they are made.

thanks
sami

yes they are flash files, unfortunately flash has never been an area of mine, i use swish whenever i need any flash, and from a guess i would assume you could have the main flash file, with links to smaller flash files (the previews) inside that flash file, personally i would just use normal html to link to individual flash samples, a lot easier especially if it's an area you're not too hot on