How to copy-protect a photo distribution CD?

Hi, I've been asked to provide a CD of all pictures taken during a

show event to the customer in order to view the pictures and select

those to be printed. Can you please advice a software utility which

will copy protect them (not to be able to distribute them nor copy

them) but enable viewing in full resolution showing their respective

file names? Am using CANON EOS 10D shooting in full JPG resolution.

Thanks in advance,

Mirtos

There is no such software. If they can see a still image on their screen, then they can copy the file. Instead you can ensure the images they have will not print well (small size or watermark).

 

Create a PS Action that resizes 200x300 pixels (or smaller) and then saves a low quality jpeg of it in another directory. Now apply this Action to the (already backed up right?) full size images as a batch. Now you should have a selection they can choose from that will make poor quality 4x6 prints. Or give them a larger size (400x600 or 600x900) and use an action to slap a big ugly "Copyright 2004 Mirtos Anastasiades" in the middle of each shot at 50% opacity or something similar.

 

my $0.02,

 

Sean

Am not referring to physically copu protect the CD but to secure the content (jpg files) from been copied and/or printed. Several applications i.e. jpg2exe, etc may do this by packing the entire album jpgs into one single exe file. I was wondering which is yours recommented / prefered professional solution for contact sheet/ sample albums for selection by customer. Some facilities I am looking for are "SELECT" button during the slide show and selection list extraction to be emailed to me for ordering. Any suggestions? BTW, am using MAC OS X.

jpg2exe is a hurdle, not a solution. Again, if they can see it on the screen, they can copy/

print/whatever. If you hand them the image, they can do what they choose to with it.

Hopefully your customer will do the right thing, but the reality is that once the image

leaves your hands it's out in the wild. There's no way to prevent a determined person from

copying what you give them.

I can't remember which program it was (it may have been software that came with a DVD burner), but Mirtos is correct - there are ways to embed the images and presentation software into one single executable file (I'm not sure about the inclusion of their file names though).<p>Since there are no individual image files anywhere on the CD (the collective images are turned into a single file like a video), this does in fact prevent anyone from accessing any particular image unless they use some sort of screen capture during the presentation.<p>Try checking out DVD burning software.

As someone already mentioned, this is a hurdle, not a solution (there are none). Macromedia Flash? It is hackable, but only by someone who really knows what he's doing. Plus you have the added bonus of being able to make a nice presentation layout that will play across platforms. Or you can make the flash file and export to a movie file (MPG or AVI). Again, hackable, but not worth the effort, IMHO.

 

Rich

I don't see why you would want the full res pics on the cd. Most people use a screen size of 1024x768 or at most 1280x1024. At most I'd include 800x600 size pics at a jpeg quality of 7 or 8? As has been suggested, use a batch action to throw on a copyright with your name on all the images. There are many ways to make an exe slide show file, check Google for a wide variety of software some of which may be available as trial programs. Use "exe slide show" as a search term.

I built a viewer in Macromedia Director that requires the user to hold down the mouse button in order to view a larger version of the thumbnail (when they let go of the mouse button, the image closes). This is to complicate screen cap efforts. I'm sure there is a workaround, but for the average user hopefully not worth the bother.

I think that Adobe Acrobat will do this. You may want to check on the Adobe web site.

 

You'll need to purchase the full version of Acrobat to do this.

 

I think there's a way to do some of this on a Mac if you're using system 10. In system

10 one can print to a PDF file instead of paper output. There are some security

choices to be made at that time I think. I might be confusing these choices with

Photoshop though...Ha, check out saving to PDF in photoshop.

It would probably be easier and safer to upload the pics to a file for viewing

online with a watermark on them and a not for distribution statement that

addresses electronic distribution. Also post your copyright statement. A small

say 200x300 pixel jpeg image will have enough detail to view and order but

not enough to print. There are plenty of examples of working photography

businesses doing this. Whatever you do, don't burn anything to a cd unless it's

a low rez image in a small size with a watermark.

All this stuff can be cracked.<BR><BR> Use less resolution sized images. DO ADD A READ ME FILE Stating who you are; your actual phone number; actual fax number; actual addresss; plus email address. Also state in simple wording what your copying/no copying/printing/small proofing policy is. This allows one to contact you later; for approvals; royalities; or to shoot work for a client who like your type of images.<BR><BR> Here we get CD's from clients with no info as to ownership; no contact info; no watermarks; and they state they own the images. In the old days studios stamped their prints; with name and address; for reprints. Today photographers sometimes focus on copy-protection more than labeling their images with watermarks; or labeling their CD's. This gives the printer a headache; when clients claim they own images; vastly vastly better than their normal stuff. Here the brides mothers come to us with their "proof Cd's of the wedding"; and the local photographers copyright. The micro watermark is visible as a single grain of sand at the beach. The photographer is also a client of ours; so printing the CD would be two wrongs at least. So they go to another printer in a huff; where he might not see the micro watermark; or know his work. Alot of the general public will wrongly assume the CD you gave them is a free ticket for a million prints. Use big watermarks; readme files; reduced image sizes; etc.

Macromedia Director compiled as an exe file. Yes it can be hacked but it won't be easy. Combine that with a big copyright @ 50% opacity and a small low res jpg and you'll be fine.

If you�re giving this to someone who you�re doing business with, you have to have faith that they'll act appropriately, otherwise, don�t do business with them. I don�t see this as too much of an issue because there is no reason to give them print resolution images. Just give them 72 dpi images sized to about 400 pixels as the longest dimension. That will give them a large enough image to evaluate, but not large enough to do much else with them.

 

If you�re really concerned, you could always drop the images into a Flash slideshow, from which you can�t copy files (though sometimes you can still take a screenshot).

 

Another precaution would be to inset a readme.txt file on the disk that stipulates your restrictions. Or lay out your terms in a cover letter and make it known that by opening the files on the CD they agree to your terms.

 

Otherwise, why not just print them a conventional contact sheet so they can just circle their choices?

 

jb

<p>Keep in mind what has been said in the thread: if it shows on the monitor, it can be

copied (at minimum through screen capture software).

<p>One practical solution to improve the protection on your images is PDF. Photoshop CS

has a

PDF Presentation feature (in the Automate menu) that allows to pack images in a PDF. The

second dialog box gives you an option to protect the document. Protection options include

disabling printing, disabling copy/paste, requiring a password to view the document, and

more.

<p>Note however that Apple Preview, although it supports most of the restrictions, won't

prevent you from exporting to JPEG from a protected PDF... too bad...

<p>As other have pointed out, you may want to send lower resolution images and include

a visible "Copyright" watermark on the image.

<p>Finally if you are really concerned over your images being stolen, you can apply a

Digimarc watermark from Photoshop. This is the safest option because it cannot be cloned

out or cropped (unlike a visible watermark). See Photoshop help for more details.

<p>Copy protection is only one half of the solution IMHO. It has been my experience that

most people are honest but lazy, i.e. they only copy because, with many businesses, it's

easier and more convenient to copy than to buy... so not only do you need to raise the bar

on copying but you also want to lower the bar on buying.

I second the notion on Adobe Acrobat. You can password protect, and keep people from copying and pasting it to another application.

 

True people can print the screen, but I'm sure most would give up by then.

 

I send out all my work from PDF, which has been mostly text based, print publishing, and my CV. There has been a couple of tims where I was lucky to do that.

I use Firehand Lightning, www.firhand.com. It gives the option to disable the ability to copy, print, or transfer images. I suppose there might be a way to hack around this, but how many people would be able to do that, or even think of trying?

Correction that's www.firehand.com.

Yes, the full version of adobe will protect your work. Unfortunately, Adobe is quite expensive. You can also set up Adobe to keep your work from being altered or printed.

The ultimate solution is CopySafe which protects from all screen capture and Printscreen, including video capture.

 

See www.copysafe.net for the online demos... you will be impressed.

<p>Use proshow gold can do a slide photo show on a exe file and u can set how many time can be played</p>