Digital Product Protection

Digital product protection has been a hot topic on a discussion list that I belong to. I gave my opinion on that list and thought that I’d share my thoughts here so that more people would be able to see them.

First, as a certified computer security professional (and I recently added the GIAC GCIA to the list — look for Analyst number 4444), I have a duty to take care of my customers, or “principals” (as most Codes of Ethics put it). Since a big part of my profession deals with protecting intellectual property rights, the protection of digital products falls into this category.

There are various protection schemes that you can use. Many of them make life difficult for your customer. One that falls into this category are products that “phone home” every time you want to open the ebook. Others will take an ebook in PDF format and convert it into an executable file (which makes life difficult for Mac and Linux users). Yet other product owners will password protect a PDF ebook and/or restrict the ability to copy and print text. All of these can be part of the solution; however, they are far from foolproof, tend to annoy your legitimate customers, and will most likely increase your support costs.

Passwords will get passed around. If you password protect your ebook in PDF format, it’s trivial for a thief to share your password as they share your ebook.

My own personal take on the subject:

• People who steal your digital downloads are doing it for the sake of stealing it. Most will never even read it, much less do anything with it.
• A legitimate consumer of your product will realize that there’s more to it than just the digital download and will pay for support and other extras. By adding value to your purchase in the form of support that only purchasing customers can take advantage of (such as support forums, online instructional videos, etc.), you can encourage people to pay. Another great way to encourage payment is to send out frequent updates to registered users — who, of course, must pay first.
• Put a statement in the front of your ebook that encourages freebie seekers to pay and register for support and updates.
• If you find an unauthorized copy of your digital product somewhere, get with your lawyer to determine the best course of action. You may have an option such as action under the DMCA.
• If you find your product on a Torrent, create a free but abbreviated / incomplete version of your report. Make it about the same size as the real product, then release it onto the Torrent. Repeat this 10-20 times and you’ll reduce the odds that somebody using that Torrent will get your real product.
• Put your digital product into its own directory on your web server and use some type of password access (such as an .htaccess file) to limit access.

I’ve obtained resale rights to a product that will make creation and maintenance of a password protected directory for digital products very easy to manage. As soon as I get done with a special step by step guide that will show you how to best use this product, I’ll make it available for sale. It was designed for membership sites but can easily be adapted to use for your regular digital products.

There are other systems you can also use that are much more elaborate than the “simple system” I’ll be releasing soon (probably after vacation next week!). I will go into more detail on them in a future post.

In closing, keep your business — and your digital product protection schemes — customer focused. Take care of the people who truly do see value in what you do and don’t make life too terribly difficult for them. At the same time, be vigilant and do consider taking action against those who steal your products — especially if they are trying to sell them.