OT: How to post seminar video for sale (SaaS?)

Chanimal wrote on 10/27/2008, 12:46 PM

I produced a video series for a 2 day seminar. The client wants to sell paid access to it online and doesn 't want people to copy the videos and distribute it freely.

So, what is the format of the video and how do we secure it (I know Flash won't copy to your system, but can't windows media format also do it if you disable something in the web page?) . If so, what are the settings within the web page, etc.

Access would be for 60 days for each account.

They also want to do coupons through the system, want it to integrate with their merchant account and allow viewing access for single individuals at a time (tied to IP address) or to a company (with a different code that allows multiple viewers at once).

Are there any SaaS video services that handle all of this?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/27/2008, 4:07 PM

Dunno what SaaS is, but i can tell you that if someone can see the video in their browser, they can save it to their hard drive. Probably the best you can do is include some DRM features in a WMV file and have either an expiration date or tie it to the DRM key on each individual PC.

Coursedesign wrote on 10/27/2008, 4:53 PM

SaaS=Software as a Service.

Filmkey Video On Demand (VOD) is a new service that seems to do what you want.

You can try it out by "buying" one of their demo films (you don't have to pay of course).

There are some local resources also, but they are only used by very large companies.

Remember that not all users can install anything (because they don't have admin rights), because they are at a school or workplace that won't allow it.

Chanimal wrote on 10/27/2008, 5:20 PM

Thanks. The Filmkey is a DRM encryption codec. Is there an "all in one" VOD service. I.e, upload video. Tie it to your existing e-commerce account then the system handles everything else.

Anything else that might have the shopping cart, makes the payment, allows you to set the amount of time the client can access the streaming video, setups a password, then turns it off afterward the 60 day allotement, etc.?

A turnkey VOD service with configurable options?

johnmeyer wrote on 10/27/2008, 9:18 PM

This may seem like an odd response to your question, but check out this site:

WM Recorder

This software is the premiere product for capturing streaming video. It can capture video from just about any site. In some cases, it can even capture video that has been protected in some way.

The reason for linking to this is that you can use the feature sheet to see if whatever solution you choose can be captured by a determined viewer.

GlennChan wrote on 10/27/2008, 9:38 PM

I'm not so sure why people worry so much about piracy. The largest software companies out there devote a fair amount of resources towards DRM, yet their software gets cracked and they still make a lot of money. Microsoft, Adobe, etc. etc. All have their own DRM copy protection... and it has all been broken.

From a business point of view, I don't think that DRM makes a big difference to the bottom line.

On the other hand, I've seen an instance where a company would install the 15-day trial on multiple computers and therefore avoid paying for it. But that's another story!

- If your product is obscure, then it's probably not going to get cracked and widely distributed. If your product does get cracked, then it's a great problem to have as it implies that your product is popular.

But that's just my opinion.

- For digital downloads, I use eJunkie and am pretty happy with it. (You can use a coupon code like CRAFTBOOM to use it for free for a while.) It doesn't come integrated with any DRM.
You can set how many times a user gets to download the file, and when the download link expires. And you can see if people are using multiple IPs to download the product.

Avanti wrote on 10/27/2008, 9:44 PM

You can save any video including Flash on the web with RealPlayer, and it's free.

http://www.avantibiz.com

Steve Mann wrote on 10/27/2008, 11:57 PM

If you can see it, you can copy it. It's so easy there's a short article in the November 2008 issue of Popular Science describing how to do it.