NYCPHP Meetup

[inforequest]

David Krings ramons-at-gmx.net |nyphp dev/internal group use| wrote:

> birgunj birgunj wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>  i am uploading ebooks on my website. i want to restrict user from 
>> downloading or printing the book.user should only read the document 
>> but cant not save or download or printing.
>> how do we do  this ? can anybody help me? its very urgent.if any 
>> software which can do it, then plz give me the name of that software 
>> also.
>>  
>> thanks to all in advance.
>>  
>> humayoo
>>
> There were many discussions about this in the past months and they all 
> resulted to this being a futile attempt. In order to display the 
> content in a browser the users have to download the file. This is how 
> the WWW works. Printing is as easy by pressing Print Screen. There are 
> some attempts to stop caching, obfuscating the real source URL of the 
> file, and some tricks disabling the most obvious functions for 
> printing and saving, which may or may not work depending on browser used.
>
> As I pointed out back then, you try to solve a management problem with 
> technology and that never works. Your ebooks need to be priced right 
> and be of such a high quality that the users do want to pay you for 
> them. If that doesn't fit your business model, seek out avenues other 
> than online distribution. The only good idea that I have is 
> self-desctructing CDs, which yet have to be invented.
>
> Good luck, you will need it for what you want to do.
>
> David 

Not to be contrary :-) but there is *always* a way.

In this case there are social engineering approaches to the application 
of technology which work, but they don't involve PHP any more than 
building an HTML form or writing a PDF file might involve PHP. No, I 
won't explain them, and anyway people who look for scripts and 
"software" to protect their eBook websites don't usually commit adequate 
resources to execute effectively.

People log into web pages they would never want to print or distribute 
every single day of the year. It's not about prevention, but persuasion. 
Think about that, and you'll see some possibilities.

-=john andrews

-- 
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You never really know how good you can until someone competes against you right in your own space. It's thrilling, invigorating, and empowering. Unless you lose. Then it sucks. --John Andrews Competitive Webmaster and SEO Blogging at http://www.johnon.com