I recently made a couple of short films and put them on DVD. I am worried people will make unauthorized copies of them. Is there any way to protect this from happening? My resources aren't as great as SONY, so my options seem very limited.
Originally posted by rulisky: If Sony can't do it, WHAT makes you think you can??
Asked before, answered before.
Wait . . . just take a BIG pair of scissors and scratch each disk well.
Obviously, nothing can be 100% copy protected. But maybe there's a way to just do something where someone that doesn't know much about computers might give up after Nero says it's not re-writable? Or just to make it that little bit more difficult for anyone that want to make copies of your DVD's?
As for this being asked before, i have no doubt it has. But i for one have done a search and found no helpful information, that's why i'm asking here.
If you have a thread that might be helpful, why not just post the link instead of just posting crap that helps no one.
I slam a few deliberately created bad sectors on the end of the burn, then finalize. Seems to stop 40% of copying programs as the disk fails the crc checks. Also has a nasty habit of making the disk unreadable, and impossible to eject from a pc drive. 70% of dvd players will also have problems with a disk like that. It's what I do when somebody mithers me to burn them a film when I'm busy ;)
If you use certain dvd creation software (dvd styler) you can also create your own non existent menu entries and unreferenced title sets with the usual button under tricks. Those are broken easily too by modern dvd ripping programs like dvdfab etc..
Trouble is.. if you can watch it you can copy it.. simple as.
If you google around you will find a few pieces of software to copy restrict disks, but they are very easily broken also.
It is possible to make it hard to rip the disc even for James at Slysoft or Fengtao, but it is not worth the effort.
You cannot put actual copy protection on a DVD-R though. The only possibly is maybe if you have a PioneerDVR-s201 with DVD-R(A) media. I have no idea if the burner can actually encrypt using CSS or if it just flags the disc to have CSS implemented when you send it to a replicator though and it is definitely NOT worth the investment!!
The only thing you can do is what Sony does and that is corrupt the DVD. Sony corrupts the UDF file structure as well as adds unreadable sectors on the disc. Recently, they started messing with IFO & BUP files. I highly recommend you DO NOT do that. All that does is increase the risk of your disc not working.
As for implementing a corruption on a disc, it is not an easy task since you have to do it manually. When I do it, I use many different software in order to prep the movie for corruption. It involves vast knowledge of DVD structure and, navigation and commands. I've successfully corrupted a few discs, but the time and effort it takes to implement the corruption well, it's just not worth it.
As for unauthorized copies of your DVDs, think of it as free advertising. What better way to get people to watch your films than to have it spread on the net? If I were to release a movie, I would make it free. Maybe have something like "If you enjoyed this movie, please support more films by donating to ... "
Originally posted by JaguarGod: The only thing you can do is what Sony does and that is corrupt the DVD. Sony corrupts the UDF file structure as well as adds unreadable sectors on the disc. Recently, they started messing with IFO & BUP files. I highly recommend you DO NOT do that. All that does is increase the risk of your disc not working.
In any case, if it plays on a DVD player, even if you can't do a digital clone copy you can always convert the player's analog play onto digital by capturing it to your computer.
But that is not something most people can do.
In any case why are you worried people will misuse copies of your short films? In fact you should encourage them to, as there will be more people paying attention to them.
