Making a video impossible to download

or almost impossible. How would you go about doing this? Mod_Rewrite?

Don't put it on internet.

If a user can see the video...they can download it.

Simple as that. The video file, whether streamed or not, can be downloaded. Google YouTube downloader etc. If they cannot figure out how to prevent their videos from being downloaded, it is not possible.

The issue is, the user, in order to see the video has to have that video sent to his computer and can hence capture it in some way.

Don't put it on internet.

The only true way to make sure it is not downloaded. 

I guess to be more specific, how would you make it very difficult for someone to just install a firefox plugin and download a video. I realize anyone can screen-capture. Im looking for a method or whatever which would make it difficult for the average user to download it.

Don't put it on internet.

Using your own words - For "the average user to download it" all he needs to do is "just install a firefox plugin".

Since you cannot stop someone from easily obtaining a tool that allows them to download the content you have published/streaming on your site, the answer is as has already been given, don't publish that content on an openly accessible public web site.

To make it "hard" (notice quotes), use mod_rewrite to force the video to open through a PHP file.

Next in the php file, figure out how the file was requested... was it requested by a link, include, direct input, etc. you could also check what page requested the file, and require that that page requests the file (remember that people can modify header requests so its not 100%).

decide how it was requested and either allow it to output or not.

if it was requested, it possibly was requested by a web page or swf, you then may want to check to see if it was requested from a certain page/file, and if so do what you want with it.

also place the video outside the root folder.

Good Luck!

Won't work. Just get it from the local cache, which is what I believe the majority of Firefox extensions do to download streamed videos.

Their might be a way in action script to not cache files???? Wouldn't that be like a live web cam?

Or could the files just be streamed live?

If it's sent to the client, it could be intercepted.

That's the bottomline.

you could program your own client program.  But that doesn't stop 3rd party screen capture tools that are independent of browsers.  Suppose you could have it check if known ones are running... but,  it would only be a matter of time until someone cracks your program.

And packet sniffers....  I guess with a custom client stuff could be encrypted or use a weird codec or something though.

Encode it as a flv.

Code it so the flv will only play with a certain domain name.

e.g. test.flv will only run if its residing on www.domain.com/test/flv

-steve

That's possible?

Now, let's say the user is super determined, he/she could simply put a hosts file entry and map it to their own web server.

Or, surely one could remove the domain restriction somehow?  When it comes down to it, if a player could play the file, the data is there in some manner.

But that is a really good idea since that one would be a bit of a bitch to circumvent.

Good idea about the hosts file. Didn't think of that.

Could you stream a video down to the client?

I've seen videos streamed to the client and havn't been able to get a handle on the end file (as the end file is never copied onto the clients pc, its streamed).

-steve

Yeah that's how Netflix essentially does it.  (Not that I've looked into it ;p.)

But if an end user was really super determined, he/she could use a packet sniffer.  It would be a bitch to filter it all out, but it could work.

Or, the end client could make a program that would emulate the Flash applet or what ever else was supposed to receive the video.  (But that could be made very difficult.)

I guess the stream could even be encrypted, but of course it would be decrypted on the user's computer at some point in time.

Theoretically, if a user was really, super, obsessingly determined, the video content will at some point be in memory.... so theoretically it could get grabbed from there.

Point being that you need the book in front of you to be able to read it, so to speak. Same goes with any type of content, be it physical or digital. You can't read the book if it's at the library and you're at home. The book must somehow be brought to you or vice versa.

Yeah....

And that's why some people think the internet is the death of arts ;p.

Hmm.. Flash wont help for this matter ^^...

I am running Ubuntu and have a codec on my PC that can play flash videos on my PC ^^ and the videos where download from you tube with the help of flash video downloader.... there is not physical way of protecting your videos, which to me seems stupid.

Why do you want to make them protected in the first case? Even if company's protect there DVD's (Movie Company's) there is always a way to un-encrypt it..

Even so if you make your own program with use of say Frameworks like Adobe AIR or Silverlight that doesn't help as people can always crack in depended programs and then get all required info they need from farther on.

In the 2nd place why do you need to protect videos? Do that have any value to them? Are they something eligal?

I see no point in protecting videos.

Training Videos made for particular software can cost $$$$$. Protecting these from been circulated on the Internet is big for these companies who make video training.

I've seen DRM been used, however its fairly weak also at this stage.

Also, you can easily use a screen recorder and a jack plug from your speakers to your mic and record the video.

-steve