protecting my work

A couple of thoughts here, Bonnie.

First, it takes someone with a fair amount of technical savvie to mooch a package. It can be done but I'd be willing to bet that not many would have the wherewithal to pull it off. So your risk is likely minimal. You can further reduce this risk by placing caching restrictions on your content either from the server or from the content itself.

Second, the best deterrents tend to be making someone aware that your content is protected. Despite the actions of the few, the honor system is a strong motivator when it's brought to light. By simply letting folks know that the content is licensed for viewing only by the subscriber and any copy, broadcast, or distribution is forbidden may all but eliminate your risk.

Agree with Steve, if they are determined enough they will get your content but even reverse engineering that is a nightmare, it would be easier to build the course from scratch!

Brand your product.  The branding doesn't have to be anything more than your name, but it may make some people less likely to use it.

hmmm.There is an interesting widget for Adobe's Captivate. You can limit the servers that can run the lesson. I take it there is nothing like that for Articulate?

Yeah... that whole honor system is not likely to be a strong motivator.

Interesting general statement about teachers. I guess I don't see either of these these characteristics (technically savvy and dishonest) as generally true about that group

It's not too tough to add a custom element to a Presenter screen to check the host location. This could lock the navigation if it's launched from a location other than your host address. It's not tough to do but some custom Flash work would be required. If you're interested in a custom locking component, contact me or James Kingsley. I'm sure we can put something together that will meet your needs.

I would still recommend indicating the intent or license of the content directly within the content as a disclaimer in open display. Statement of license and copyright prevents most abuse of ownership every day on the internet. There are some things that  can only be deterred:)

Unfortunately, as Steve Flowers said, most things can only be deterred. Disclaimers, copyrighting, and branding will not guarantee that no one else will use your courses. I don't agree that "honor" will prevent anything, this is the Internet, the most lawless place on earth. I find that a lot of things that give a stern warning like "if you use or distribute this product in any shape of form, we WILL pursue you and take legal action against you" actually make people more likely to do just that.

I'd say the best bet is some sort of content protection.

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Hi folks... 

I don't think I said teachers were downloading. There is a strong possibility that someone will duplicate the work from the server and give it over to teachers to create hybrid or blended courses. It has happened to other teachers. This is possibility follows a trend I observed in a small paper in my Masters where U.S. k12 authorities opened up the online courses to the entire district to create a psuedo DL environment. 

Adobe Captivate has a widget that limits what server the material can run off. Does Articulate have a plugin or similar feature? 

Thanks 

good artists copy, great artists steal!

Articulate doesnt have a widget available for this, even if you could download a course you cannot really reverse engineer it to edit it, so if you have branded it and added a statement that shows your work is copyrighted, would deter most people from using your content.  You could even add a statement that if you are accessing the course from a different server/website please contact ??? to reprot this and add contact link

Dont forget that unlike the great wild west of the internet if an individual or organisation is using your content it will be realtively easy to track them down particularly schools, colleges etc

It is very easy however to replicate your course, if you have access to articulate or another authoring tool just by looking at the slides

Most of us have learnt our skills by looking at what other people are doing and copying that, I spend more time on developing my content rather than being worried who is stealing/copying it.

Consider going the other way: share your work and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Other teachers save time by using your courses, you save time by using theirs.

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