To protect from illegal sharing is quite impossible sometimes. The only you can do is locked the ebook from been edited,put a password to open and at download page. Some ebook we need to register to read it using format of .exe. But most of reader doesn't like this format since it look like a lot of virus format in .exe.
I was looking for a similar answer I used to set encryption from Adobe Acrobat or similar SWs and provide the password to your customers. Combined to a hash download folder generator (e.g. yoursite.com/fwerfwrfrwreftegwtrgyr/document.pdf), it's the best way Yes, its almost impossible to prevent illegal sharing, but you have to do it.
I wanted to know basically the same thing, last year, and I started off this thread. I think you'll probably find it useful reading (as I did). Since then, I've taken advice from several people, both here and elsewhere, but I still haven't found a way to do what I needed to do, other than using a ".exe" file. A small number of people seem to be rather outspoken opponents of these, but it remains incontrovertible that many are also using them very successfully indeed.
It's nearly impossible to prevent them from the possibility of theft, while still focusing on customer service. And customer service should always be the higher priority. Your best protection against future theft is to actively pursue those who do try to distribute it without your permission. Exe's piss off a lot of readers, and that's not a good first impression to make. The exception would be if you're writing for audiences who are somewhat tech-illiterate, who don't understand the dangers of receiving executable files from people they don't know (and they don't know you). There are definitely things you can do - e-junkie.com is great for distribution. It's $5 per month for up to 10 items I believe. You can set it up so their download links expire, and everyone gets a new download link (stops people from sending or posting the download link). But you can't stop people from sharing the physical file anymore than you could stop someone from lending a print book to their friend. If you're able to prove real value in your e-book though, it's not going to seriously hurt your sales - the people stealing it probably wouldn't have spent their money anyway. Just basic business sense. Don't agonize over everything that could go wrong. Do what has the better potential for making more go right - .pdfs have done that more successfully than anything else in the e-book game.
I'm not to sure of the product, whether it was ereader or something like that, But I remember I purchased a book online some years back, and it required me to use a special reader for it, and although it was PDF and I tried to get it on another computer it won't open.. sorry I can't remember the reader, it was ages back However protecting files can really be a difficult thing these days, except you use an ebook compiler which actually makes your product look outdated if not considered a virus In my opinion the best way to protect PDF is to stop trying, and just add value with video and some there things, thereby breaking the full program into bits, so that even if someone gets his/her hand on one part getting the other may not be that easy. Also in the pdf make reference to other section of the program so that those who get it free will be enticed to find out more, and may end up purchasing themselves. So instead of trying to protect it reward purchasers with other added bonuses that can't be shared so easily... mention the rewards in the PDF
Thanks for your post, Jenn. I remain confused by some aspects of this situation. I can't understand the point in protecting the download-link, if people can pretty effortlessly send the file to each other as an email-attachment anyway. I can certainly envisage some examples where this would probably be so, but equally, I really don't see why it necessarily follows, at all. Call me naive, but if it's something of considerable value that people are recommending to each other, and you're selling it for $7 or $9 or whatever, I would have thought that huge numbers of people would prefer to receive it free, by email, from a friend, but would happily pay the $7 or $9 or whatever, if that facility were simply not available. I believe there are many people making rather a good living out of selling e-books created and protected by such software as "E-book Pro 6.0" who will testify to this, too.
Have them pay for the ebook using an online payment processing system like PayPal that requires an authenticated name and address. Then, dynamically generate each ebook PDF on the server. On each page of the PDF, have a line that says "This ebook was generated especially for (name, address)". When you generate the ebook, make sure PDF security is set to No Changes, with a 32-character password for any changes (so they can't remove the name/address with the full version of Adobe Acrobat). Does this sound like a solid solution? I was actually thinking about building a business based on this, with a commission of 5% for each ebook created.
For my own purposes, both of these would cause delays and great inconvenience as well as losing sales. But perhaps more to the point, I don't understand how even doing all that would prevent anyone from simply forwarding the file to friends as an email attachment.
good idea. but then they can still distribute it. although you can track who distributes it. - that is if you caught them.
Look. If someone wants to be completely anal over what might happen, assuming their potential customers are dishonest, then they're better off keeping that content locked up in their heads. That's the only way it's completely safe. You'll never stop all types of theft. It's impossible. That doesn't mean your honest customers should have to suffer. Making them happy is what good business is about, and it's where the real money in e-book publishing is (getting them to buy further products and spread word of mouth chatter about it to others). Can people still make money with .exe e-books? Sure. Like I mentioned before, some buyers are completely naive and they wouldn't think twice about it. Others do know you, so they'll trust you. But if you're selling that cheap $7-9 e-book, you need to appeal to the masses within your target market in order to earn a significant amount over time. If you were charging $1000 and only selling 10 copies, it might be a completely different story (because the value rests on the shoulders of exclusivity). Authors don't stop writing books because they know they'll be passed around. Musicians don't stop recording just because they know for a fact that some people will steal their tracks. They know their markets, and they work to appeal to those who would pay. Most people aren't necessarily thieves. If you find that your e-book is being passed around endlessly and no one wants to pay for it, learn something from that. It probably speaks more to the niche or quality of the product, or your ability to market it effectively, than it does about the people passing copies around. In this day and age, it's far too easy to track down and go after thieves to make it worth treating your real buyers as suspects.
Well, what I'm suggesting is will not completely prevent the ebook from being distributed - nothing can do that. It's merely a deterrent -while the purchaser could distribute the ebook to trusted friends, they most probably wouldn't want it to be passed around endlessly. If it's dynamically generated server-side, there would be no delay. There are server-side applications that can take a server-stored document and generate a PDF.