Hi All, Has anyone used this script to protect thier links on CB? What is/was your experience? Successful? http://www.mywebmasterinabox.com/ From: Ravi Jayagopal Founder & Software Architect MyWebmasterInABox.com Thanks for your feedback!
I haven't used that particular one, but I've been doing most of my download links through email with downloads that expire 48 hours after delivery for the exact reason. Too much of my stuff has gotten pirated!
Looks like a pretty cool tool over all - however looks generic re security. Most here protect with DLguard or do simple tricks to hide their pages/products. Didn't get into full features of your product but here's what you need imo as a protection system. 1. Download product links genereated per customer that expire in x min/hours/days. 2. Login/members area for customers that is per machine ID only, so you can't share login info, again can make this expire. ^ Even then everything is moot as once someone gets their hands on the actual files (your ebook.pdf, video/audio) - they can share that easily and you can't protect it - other than software < Even then cracking software isn't a huge issue for many. DLG is actually VERY intuitive and has many features that compliment like 10 networks and autogenerates the codes/needs for each including easy DB setup/integration. I know you're going after the people that don't have much experience and want a simple .php solution, however even if you have to use a tool to spit out code to copy/paste, that's still quite a bit for a user to do on their own as a noob. If you want to model something after a product that really works - I'd take a closer look at dlg and if you can come close to mimicking what they do you might have a good competing product. Otherwise most new publishers that don't have any experience re security or php, probably have no need for security yet unless they come to market as a big vendor right away (in where they would use a real system as above)... Most people here have products that don't even need protecting, and or aren't aimed at a demo that scours the web looking for torrents/thank you pages to get their yeast infection or solar solution guides... Not to discourage protection in any way - I applaud all efforts. Just when you run xx sites, and you want separate market listing/accounts, solutions are hard to do all in one across many networks/setups. Even for some of my stuff it's just not worth doing anything more than naming file download folder randomly like ...com/78dfu98d/f9dkldfu.html < then on the page my download button calls from .com/4dfu9853/cxjfuproduct_xkjxh_name_ck.zip (or .rar/.mp3/.whatever), and take out all meta info on the page or trick it, also put up fake thank you pages on purpose for google/others to find indexed, ...com/thankyou.html and or .com/thankyou/download.html < and on those pages have a laugh, redirect to your hompage, dickroll them, whatever. Every once in a while change your dl's. Also if your product IS being shared, it's actually a good thing in a sense that it's desirable, and if you really look at it - you lose nothing but some bandwidth and 'could have' money. I'm big on loss protection but sometimes some underground buzz level sharing can be good for you too. I even applaud giving massive copies of your product away in advance or during promo - again just to get buzz, and monetize on your own products inventory (bandwidth/brandwidth) and get word of mouth going... .02.
Great quote of the day Thanks for the great tip. Personally I do almost the same as you said. Put up a folder aasdfsasd, another folder inside it called weirdos and Productname.html file inside so it looks like mysite.com/aasdfsasd/weirdos/Productname.html Then just edit your .htaccess file and copy this Options -Indexes over there so that people can't access your folders such as mysite.com/aasdfsasd directly. If you aren't lazy and don't wanna let people share your files even a little bit, change the folder names aasdfsasd and weirdos once a week.
I'm a vendor, and for some of my products in the non-internet savvy niches, using a link protector just adds another layer of complication for customers. Many of them have done very little online purchasing, and are easily confused with the download process. I've had very little pirating; I just change my download links often.