Illegal Copying of my work

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lynnlamie

Illegal Copying of my work

Postby lynnlamie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:37 am

Hi Guys – Happy Halloween!

I know this idea of copyright has been discussed before, but I think I have a new question: You know how you can mark the checkbox that says the consumer can only watch the show so many days or so many times?

Well what if I put 1 day on there – would that copy over to anything they copy? So any illegal copy they have would also only play one day or one time?

I’m frustrated because with the amount of personal time I spend traveling, meeting with the family twice and then of course the time it takes to make the actual video, my profit margin becomes very small without the sale of extra DVDs.

It seems like Producer, being such a quality product, would have a way to make our shows unable to be copied by a typical consumer. Of course anything can be hacked. But can't we make it difficult for everyday people to make illegal copies?

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks so much – love this forum!

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby briancbb » Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:50 am

Lynn

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but a DVD can be played as many times as wished. Only if it is possible for a DVD player to write to the disc and amend it would it be possible to limit the number of plays, and this does not happen.

As for copy protection, almost impossible, as the large organisations have found out.
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lynnlamie

Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby lynnlamie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:03 pm

Hi Brian

So why does Producer have that option? I don't understand why they would put it on there if it's useless, and frankly, I feel a bit duped.

Thank you for the info. Grrr. So frustrated.

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby bellzerr » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:13 pm

I think the number of views protection is for PC executable shows only - and I believe Photodex specifies that. As you and others have noted, virtually any copy protection can be defeated. I think the better plan is to take advantage of the branding capabilities offered by Photodex:
1. Create an opening slide with your name and logo to replace the Photodex default slide (the yellow noisy one). Then always include this as the opening slide in your shows just like the big Hollywood guys.
2. For shows containing photos you want to protect, slap a watermark across every slide. Viewers can still see the quality of your photography, but they can't capture and use them for anything of their own.
3. Always include your name and contact information in the closing credits.
If you do these things as appropriate to the type of show and level of protection you're looking for, who cares if they make copies? Every copy they hand out will be your name in the hands of another potential client.

lynnlamie

Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby lynnlamie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:54 pm

Ok I hear what you are saying - but the issue isn't with the photography, as I do memorial tributes, so all photos are family snapshots. Also, because it's memorial shows to be shown at Visitation and/or funerals, neither the opening or the watermark on each slide, is a viable option. Pretty tacky on a memorial show. I do put my contact info at the very end, however.

Has anyone heard of these option? I have been researching this whole issue, and this came up. What do you think?

[i]A few technical tricks is to make ghost or un-referenced files on a DVD - all you have
to do is import the mpeg2 file into your DVD authoring program and add it to the
project but don’t point anything to it - add random dummy files making it much
harder for those who use ifo editors to see which program is the actual presentation.
Import a blank 720x480 .bmp and make it act as if it's a movie - but make them
unreferenced.
Another trick is to author onto dual layer so it makes it harder to do a 1:1 copy
All this is very easy and NOT really time consuming at all.

Or this:

some people make copies and then scratch the finished disc so that it will play back but copy software plays up. You'd need to make a sacrificial chapter containing black that you can afford to damage

Hmmmm.....

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby briancbb » Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:16 pm

Lynn

As Mark has said, the number of show plays applies to PC executable files. Because the executable is held on a device that you can write to and modify the file, the harddrive, a count of number of plays can be held.

I go with Mark, let people make a copy of the original, make your money on providing the original disc. Treat copies as advertising, either by opening or closing credits.

If it was really that easy to copy protect DVD's there would be no pirate copies available :lol: .
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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby anitaemile » Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:56 pm

What a fuss about copies.. Why not just sell one DVD for a price you can live with and have these people copy as many as they like? You can also offer them copies for say, a few $$, if you want to make additional money, but just leave the actual project , original DVD be the money maker?
I know some very clever people when it comes to copying and believe me.. nothing will keep those people from copying stuff !.

Anita

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby bellzerr » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:30 pm

Go Anita.
So Lynn, is your fee for making additional copies what you are trying to protect? I guess it must be since no one other than a few family members are going to be interested in a memorial tribute. Give it up. It's not worth the frustration.
Last edited by bellzerr on Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

lynnlamie

Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby lynnlamie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:35 pm

Bellzerr
In the region where I work, there are huge families who are potential customers and I am missing out on hundreds of dollars worth of profit. I charge $20 per additional DVD and I have been told they are worth much more. Word gets around, and I am certain that my shows are being cvopied. So with all due respect, I was just wondering if there was a simple way to protect the show I have created. That's all.

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby bellzerr » Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:22 pm

No offense intended, Lynn. Sorry. Just trying to save you some frustration. I think you're stuck with creative marketing solutions. Maybe increase your base price by 100 bucks but include 5 DVD copies, etc. Anita really has the right idea though. Charge appropriate fees for your production skills because the unauthorized copies are unhappily a fact of life. Good luck.
By the way, how do you deal with the short lead time for memorial shows... or are your shows not used for the memorial service?

lynnlamie

Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby lynnlamie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:14 pm

thanks... I guess I am frustrated that there is just no way to do it. thanks for trying to save me some time. I am embarrassed to say that I have far too much time researching this subject today. Apparently some people have found that making a small scratch in a very precise place on the DVD face has made the show run properly, yet will not copy on Windows. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? I may experiment and get back to you.

As far as the time crunch, it can be a problem at times. I usually require 48 hours, but can do 24 hour turnaound if absolutely neccessary. I guess I work well under pressure. I have excellent feedback on my shows!

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby caganaudie » Sat Oct 31, 2009 7:49 pm

Curiosity has gotten the best of me, so I have to ask: How much do you charge for your shows?

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby PhotoMill » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:49 am

Hi Lynn,
Illegal reproduction has been around a long time and unfortunately, the answers you have received so far are all too accurate. I have even seen (as many have) where a Handicam has been placed in front of a screen and a production copied that way. With today's video cameras being the HQ that they are, there is very little difference between the original and the reproduction even with that extreme method.

Just to expand on this a tad, not so long ago, all photo productions for the most part were put on CD's or VCD's which were playable only on the computer (not TV). As Brian pointed out these were PC executables which could easily have all kinds of restrictive safeguards put in place. A program called "FlipAlbum" for example had excellent guards ie; password, date and number of plays allowed. Once productions jumped from PC-only, to DVD for TV, all guards were lost and to this day, nothing has changed re DVD copying. Perhaps that is an option to consider at this point. Make your DVD for the funeral home, but produce and deliver only PC playable DVD's which you can put safeguards on and later (after the service) sell to the family. This of course would mean twice the work on your part but it would certainly put the clamps on the piracy issue.

Personally, I would simply charge enough for the production work and let the pirates do their thing. As you mention, the families are big so that tells me that these same people will be calling on you for your work as time goes on.

I have not heard about the disk scratching myself, but I'd sure like to know if it actually works and where does the strategic scratch go? If you have any luck with this, please pass on your results.

Take care...
...Steve

P.S. "FlipAlbum" is a nearly defunct program found at www.flipalbum.com if interested. The forum once hosted around 200 messages a day but is lucky now to get 3 or 4 message a week. It "was" state of the art for it's day.
Last edited by PhotoMill on Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby bellzerr » Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:12 am

I read a forum conversation too long to post here. Bottom line: scratches don't work. The same technology that makes the DVDs so indestructible to begin with prevents this scratch myth from working.

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Re: Illegal Copying of my work

Postby bellzerr » Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:15 am

By the way... are you putting a copyright notice on your shows? If not, I believe you're casting your shows out into the public domain where making copies is perfectly permissible.
Mark

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