Basic Password Software

[Dave A]

Just to point out that video over internet eats bandwidth, particularly if it is of a reasonable resolution...

[AndyD]

The total play time will be about 4-5 hours.
In all probability 5 modules of about an hour each.
It is possible for me to film/edit the modules with subsections.
The original idea is that the company would play the dvd on computer for teh trainees, without a facilitator. The video handles the facilitation by having the material, then every ten minutes or so the trainee reverts to the workbook. During this time the video runs, but without any action as such. After a set time, the training continues.

Sounds like it would be better to split it into the ten minute or so video segments so after each workbook session you start with a new video file. If this is hosted online, Dave is right that it will be fairly bandwidth intensive depending on resolution and framerate and the blank video sections during workbook exercises will still use bandwidth if it's one continuous file.

My business module is that the busines owner pays a monthly fee to use the video and obtains the work books from me(obviously nothing stops them copying the workbook) i do not want to sell the video straight as this market segement would balk at paying even R500 and the videos would be worth R2-3000, also obviously it saves me from selling all the time and I get an annuity style income. There are many franchises so hence the need for protection.

You will need to protect yourself from both the customers and franchisees who'll take you for a ride if they're given half a chance. The website with registration and passwords would be the way to keep yourself covered. You can deal with the registrations and access control from one central location.

There is no contract, so owner can quit when they want. Hence the idea of a cut off. If I have a changing password, if they do make copies, this makes itslightly more difficult.

You can watermark the video files so if there are copies around the users will be aware that they're copies. Watermarking is extremely effective and it's simple to add. It's also one of the more difficult forms of protection to remove. It won't prevent the files being duplicated, recoded, demuxed etc but it will always be there on the finished pirate copy which makes it risky for the distributor. For the user, the video alone is only of limited use without a workbook so they would need a pirate copy of both. You can always alter the layout slightly once in a while so the video needs a recent release of the workbook to be usable.

ALternatively, I could structure it that they pay per usage. This could be done with the live feed idea, if not too expensive.
The second part of the plan is to allow people to self train themselves and then have a better chance of gaining an interview or even a position. This segment I can either make a video that simply wipes out after say 2 weeks (one vicious virus???) or use the online idea. The drawback with the online idea is access to facility but i guess one cant have it all ones own way.

I don't know your market sector and the likelyhood of them having a decent internet connection. The video with DRM would not be my recommendation. It's expensive to implement and it's not teenager-proof.

It is therefore possible to have small clips. ut lets presume the person needs to use an internet cafe, then they are there for at least a half hour due to the minimum time rule.

Internet cafes are notoriously slow. They have a nasty habit of sharing a 4 meg line between about 10 terminals.

The other curve ball in the mix, is the ability for the dvd to play on computer and via dvd player. The dvd player version will not be able to be password driven, so that leaves the copying or self destruct idea. Perhaps I should make the video with a one or two month self destruct. It does mean I need to send a new dvd every two months, but I anyway need to get the workbooks to the client so it is not such a big deal and the cost is minimal.

A DVD player (standalone) and a DVD optical drive in a computer are two completely different animals. Without getting too technical, a DVD player is really dumb. It looks for VOB files on the disk and plays them. A computer DVD drive is far more sensitive to the structure of the information on the disk. The tutorial on making a copy protected DVD in this post capitalises on a computers inability to ignore non-compliant disk structure. This type of disk should still play on both a pc and a DVD player but it will be difficult for most to duplicate it.

All said and done, the workbook / disk combination works in your favour. Maybe look at replacing the workbook with an online version and have the videos distributed as a disk. It still makes the course a combination of hardware with watermarked video files on a disk and software with the online workbook this would still make for tight controls but it would need a website wizard to set it up with different user accounts and access levels etc. It might be better than the streaming video with users on snail paced connections. You could also assess your trainees progress according to multiple choice question sessionsat the end of each module. This might give the course more credibility in the eyes of a prospective employer if the trainees progress report is generated independently of external interference and can be mailed to a recipient as a pdf for example.

[tec0]

Well in all honesty there will be no possible way to stop people from copying your videos. Please don’t misunderstand me I am not trying to put you down but here are the real problems.

To encrypt a DVD is possible but there are load of decrypting software freely available.

Secondly with “youtube� type service you may be able to restrict users but you will not be able to stop them from “Recording� your video once registered and logged on.

Again as stated video eats bandwidth “especially in South Africa where you pay per 1mb� As for special players and header inscription. Yes you can do this. If you look at video games that have video files you will find that some of them are impossible to view with an external player. But again... The truth is if you can see it and hear it chances are you can copy it with ease.