playing a video in a web page

Hi all!
I hope this forum is the right place where to ask the following
question: basically my need is to display videos (mpeg/avi/mov) in an
html page, but I don't want that users are able to save (right click
on the resource) the video on their computer, as it's protected
material. Is there any possible solution ?
Thanks a lot
Francesco

Francesco M. wrote:
> Hi all!
> I hope this forum is the right place where to ask the following
> question: basically my need is to display videos (mpeg/avi/mov) in an
> html page, but I don't want that users are able to save (right click
> on the resource) the video on their computer, as it's protected
> material. Is there any possible solution ?
> Thanks a lot
> Francesco

There is no way of doing it, but you CAN make it harder. Use a host that
provides video streaming (asx or similar) and it gets a LOT harder to
steal your videos. But even then, there are things like ScreamBox that
lets you record video streams to disk. If you put something on a web
page, it can be stolen, end of story.

Another trick is to embed your video inside Flash. Flash movies can be
told to load other Flash movies inside themselves. The path (location)
of a Flash movie they load is NEVER exposed to the end user, so the user
would never be able to directly download the video file without totally
guessing its location. Flash Player 7 (installed on most ppls machines)
is very good at video.



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x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

SpaceGirl wrote:

> If you put something on a web
> page, it can be stolen, end of story.

Good morning Mir. So refreshing to see your comments on this sunny yet
frosty morning.

Good point. That should be posted here every day in the way that Heidi's
FAQs and Toby's stats are done weekly.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Charles Sweeney wrote:
> SpaceGirl wrote:
>
>
>>If you put something on a web
>>page, it can be stolen, end of story.
>
>
> Good morning Mir. So refreshing to see your comments on this sunny yet
> frosty morning.

Good morning! Got some BEAUTIFUL photos this morning from the train to
Dunfermline.... gorgeous sunrise over Edinburgh... until the train hit a
wall of fog on the bridges. I'm now sat here sitting in my studio
shivering. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

> Good point. That should be posted here every day in the way that Heidi's
> FAQs and Toby's stats are done weekly.

Yeah :/ I tend to think if someone is asking the question, it's probably
not worth stealing.


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x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, SpaceGirl wrote:

> Francesco M. wrote:
> > Hi all!
> > I hope this forum is the right place where to ask the following
> > question: basically my need is to display videos (mpeg/avi/mov) in an
> > html page, but I don't want that users are able to save (right click
> > on the resource) the video on their computer, as it's protected
> > material. Is there any possible solution ?
[snip]
> Another trick is to embed your video inside Flash. Flash movies can be
> told to load other Flash movies inside themselves. The path (location)
> of a Flash movie they load is NEVER exposed to the end user, so the user
> would never be able to directly download the video file without totally
> guessing its location. Flash Player 7 (installed on most ppls machines)
> is very good at video.
[snip]

"NEVER"? I have browsed sites with lynx that use a Flash file for
navigation on their entry page. I just load the downloaded *.swf file
into a text editor and look for URLs and/or *.htm[l] filenames and try
them. (I have seen some lynx-hostile sites that used *.swf files for *all*
of their navigation and had to navigate through three levels of *.swf
barriers before finding a contact address.)

Others can log their http connections and capture the URLs from the logs.

--
Norman De Forest http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/Profile.html
af380@chebucto.ns.ca [=||=] (A Speech Friendly Site)
"O'Reilly is to a system administrator as a shoulder length latex glove
is to a veterinarian." -- Peter da Silva in the scary devil monastery

On 2004-12-03, Norman L. DeForest <af380@chebucto.ns.ca> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, SpaceGirl wrote:
>
>> Francesco M. wrote:
>> > Hi all!
>> > I hope this forum is the right place where to ask the following
>> > question: basically my need is to display videos (mpeg/avi/mov) in an
>> > html page, but I don't want that users are able to save (right click
>> > on the resource) the video on their computer, as it's protected
>> > material. Is there any possible solution ?
> [snip]
>> Another trick is to embed your video inside Flash. Flash movies can be
>> told to load other Flash movies inside themselves. The path (location)
>> of a Flash movie they load is NEVER exposed to the end user, so the user
>> would never be able to directly download the video file without totally
>> guessing its location. Flash Player 7 (installed on most ppls machines)
>> is very good at video.
> [snip]
>
> "NEVER"? I have browsed sites with lynx that use a Flash file for
> navigation on their entry page. I just load the downloaded *.swf file
> into a text editor and look for URLs and/or *.htm[l] filenames and try
> them. (I have seen some lynx-hostile sites that used *.swf files for *all*
> of their navigation and had to navigate through three levels of *.swf
> barriers before finding a contact address.)

FWIW, You'd probably get better results using strings on the *swf files, man
strings

ken

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004, Kenneth wrote:

> On 2004-12-03, Norman L. DeForest <af380@chebucto.ns.ca> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, SpaceGirl wrote:
[snip]
> >> Another trick is to embed your video inside Flash. Flash movies can be
> >> told to load other Flash movies inside themselves. The path (location)
> >> of a Flash movie they load is NEVER exposed to the end user, so the user
> >> would never be able to directly download the video file without totally
> >> guessing its location. Flash Player 7 (installed on most ppls machines)
> >> is very good at video.
> > [snip]
> >
> > "NEVER"? I have browsed sites with lynx that use a Flash file for
> > navigation on their entry page. I just load the downloaded *.swf file
> > into a text editor and look for URLs and/or *.htm[l] filenames and try
> > them. (I have seen some lynx-hostile sites that used *.swf files for *all*
> > of their navigation and had to navigate through three levels of *.swf
> > barriers before finding a contact address.)
>
> FWIW, You'd probably get better results using strings on the *swf files, man
> strings

Hmmmm! I have a directory full of UNIX utilities ported to DOS that
I downloaded as a single package and unzipped and haven't had time to
examine yet. STRINGS.EXE is one of them. I'll have to try it out.
Thanks. (No documentation came with them so I'll have to search for
each one on the 'net.)

--
Norman De Forest http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/Profile.html
af380@chebucto.ns.ca [=||=] (A Speech Friendly Site)
"O'Reilly is to a system administrator as a shoulder length latex glove
is to a veterinarian." -- Peter da Silva in the scary devil monastery