Need help from computer guys

[Telvis]

As most of you know my father in law reproduce the Charger service manuals. I have everything set up not to put these books on CD. I have one concern though. I want to find a way to make the disc so that it cannot be duplicated. Can anyone help me with this. I have spent a lot of time an money getting everything set up to scan these books and get them on disc. I don't wat some schmuck making copies of my hard work and selling it against me. Any ideas will be appreciated.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

A quick search on Google

http://www.linkdata.com/index.htm#cdcops

One of many........

[69_500]

Its not that difficult to write protect a CD or a DVD that you burn. Although one of the problems that you will find is that I think that if you write protect it so that i can't be copied, the people who purchase it will be upset. Because I don't think they will be able to print out anything from the CD. Like most people would just print out what pages they wanted take them to the garage and get them all dirty. Then pitch them.

[ChargerBill]

Telvis, there's a LOT of crack software out there. If a guys gonna do it, he's gonna find a way. The best thing to do would be to ad your name or companies name as a watermark (something non-obtrusive) to each page, or to a few KEY pages. That way if someone DOES copy and try to resell it each page will be identifiable as coming from your original CD. You do want the CD to be printable, or it kind of loses some useability...

[Telvis]

I do want it printable. I just don't want someone to start burning copies and selling them. I have to scan all of these pages and put it all on a cd. I want to at least make then work to copy it.

[janimm]

There is really no sure way to prevent copying. If disk can be read, i can be copied. There are some commercial copy protection solutions, but they all have their weaknesses. Just check out what happened to Sony-BMG with their copy protected CDs...

Best solution would be to protect the content that it can be traced when necessary. As mentioned earlier.

[2Gunz]

Copying a CD and printing it are not related at all. You can protect a CD and still print it.

And copy protecting a CD is not really possible, the best that can be done is to deture the casual people from doing it.

My advice is to......

A: Use some sort of copy protection so Joe Smoe cant copy it.

B: Watermark and put your name on the pages.

C: Bury within the CD information so that if copied you know it really was you project.  An example would be your information within a large Garbage text file that most people wouldnt look in.



Depending on how crazy you want to get you could do other things.

You could have a Serial number to unlock the CD printed on the CD jacket.  This doesnt really prevent copying but slows the process.

One of the most effext methods that I have seen (but also very time consuming on your part) is a key generation and email method.

Basically the person installs the software....  the software creates a code based on information about his computer. The person installing it recieves the code then emails it to you.  You have software that takes his code and makes him an unlock code. You email it to the person installing it and then they enter it and the program unlocks.

Its very effective because once installed on a different computer the generated code is not the same because its a different computer. They may have the unlock code you emailed them the first time, however it wont unlock the software on the new computer because they dont match. So basically.........

1) Person installs software and  gets Code 572hdaosj7492
2) he emails that to you
3) You enter his code into your key program and it tells you his key is 32!!!73702859
4) You email him his key.
5) Persom enters his key and the program works.

In this setup they can copy the CD all the want but never use. The guy copying the CD might
distribute his code with it. However it wont do a damn thing because the computer they are trying to install it on
produces a different code and the key doesnt match.

Complicated, and time consuming but effective.

Also you should try doing a google search about copy protection. Some pretty cool stuff being made all the time.

GL   

[Afturhrz]

Telvis
Why does it bother you if someone copies it? Its no different than what you did in copying the manuals to begin with, more so since you are making money off someone elses content. I would be careful with what you are doing, it could lead to legal issues of copyright infringement. I know a guy that did something similar to this and the feds really pounded on him. The laws have become very strict in regards to this sort of thing. Im just saying be careful instead of making money it could cost you alot. These are just my initial thoughts, I would hate to see you have problems is the only reason Im saying anything at all.

[2Gunz]

If I remember correctly there is another post about it and he has recieved permission from Dodge to do this.

Please correct me if Im wrong.

[Telvis]

There's no copywright infringement. That part is squared away. My concern is that I don't want to do all of the work scanning these pages to disc and have soemone just start burning copies. It's not an easy task to scan nearly a thousand pages.