Hi folks! The help around here is great, so I figured I would try again. We will distribute eBooks from our site. The cart system we are using works really well for digital download items. The customer gets serial no. and user name (or whatever we need to give him).
The question is how do I protect distribution on a CD? I realize that I can password protect some pages, and then have them get a number, but we are not set up for that method of distribution.
Is there any other way to protect re-distribution of the book if I put it on CD?
The customer gets serial no. and user name (or whatever we need to give him).
The usual method is to provide a password-protected book with a few accessible pages; if the user wants to buy the complete ebook, they return the user ID (derived from the user's computer), and get a password that only works on their computer (the chance of the same password working on another machine is 1 in 1000, if you are using 1000 passwords).
So, the method should be the same, whether the customer gets the file via download or disk... If they like it, they buy the password, and open the rest of the ebook.
Roger, Thanks for the prompt reply! I appreciate it. We are using 1automationwiz (if you are familiar with them) for our shopping cart because of the great features for auto responders, newletter broadcasts and the ability to have digitial downloads. The way the system works (and the only way that I understand it to work) is that the product gets downloaded AFTER the credit card is processed. The customer gets password, etc. in an e-mail that is sent to him. So that works ok for me.
The concept of distribution by CD is one that I wanted to explore for my local market (where we do have sales reps calling). If they give out CD's with some password protected pages, I do not have a real good way to deliver a password, except by e-mail... and I do not want to do that. I guess I will just compile a book with only a few pages, and a link to the site to purchase the entire book. That should work, correct? Maybe not as slick as the "get your password" way, but it is still an automated way of doing it. Hey, maybe that way the CD will get passed around. If you have any other comments, I am all ears.
By the way, I am also playing with the CoverFactory trial. The finished covers get saved as a cfwin file. Is it just that the trial version does this, or is there a way (that the registered version) will save them as gifs or jpegs? Just wondering if you know.
I can appreciate wanting to eliminate the second step of returning a password to the user.
One alternative is to embed the passwords and the payment page itself into the ebook, and activate it internally once the ebook receives the command that the payment is made.
I believe Mr. Dobson has a nice script already built for a moderate price, that does something like that. Do a search on this forum for him, and I'm sure you'll find his site.
As far as the ebook cover software is concerned, I don't own a copy, but the format sounds like the proprietary format of the application itself.
Therefore, there must be an 'Export' or 'Save As' menu option, under 'File', that provides .bmp, .gif and .jpg, maybe .png formats. I would look there.
Roger, Thanks again! I will do the search this weekend. I am interested in making this as easy as possible for the reader (and automated for me!)
Since my last post, knowing that it was time to get down to work, I have registered both the Active eBook Compiler and CoverFactory. I have found the way to save the cover "to file", and it work perfectly.
I am almost on my way! Thanks again! By the way, I have to go have a look at your site now. Looks interesting! Peter
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