Protecting Content from Piracy (Mobile)
May 06, 2012
This is a pretty big concern for me. In the past I have created hundreds of courses using articulate. Because our courses were only displayed online, piracy was very little of an issue. A typical customer for us doesn't have the tech knowledge to get all the necessary parts of a articulate presenter published files off of our site, and onto their computer to share. (Sure, its possible, but most people are not putting in that much effort).
HOWEVER....
I am really digging storyline. I am planning to make projects that include a fair amount of video. Our customers have been begging us to make content for offline use. With storyline now out, and more "app" like functionality, we want to do just that.
But, this means making our content (easily) downloadable. This also means, its very easy for one user to "share" our content with friends. Our main target market is medical students. And in my experience (as I was one once), they are pretty tech savvy and very cheap 
While we are excited to produce "apps" from storyline for them to use on mobile devices (especially tablets), the cost of production is very high (because of all the contributors and the video that needs to be made). We cannot afford to do so, if one student pays and downloads it, but shares it with 50 other students. These types of things would tank us.
THEREFORE....
What to do? Does anyone have any ideas?
Real "apps" can be sold from the android market or itunes store. This really helps to prevent piracy for the most part. (Yes, there are ways to get around it, but not quite as easily).
I think storyline is going to be an amazing tool for mobile device education. I am very excited, but at the same time a little worried.
11 Replies
Currently my only solution is to provide my storyline "app" with advertising in it, to help cover the cost and set it out into the world for free.
But then 1. I must find an advertiser willing to pony up the amount, or split between a few. And 2. I really need to be able to track it somehow. Especially when dealing with advertisers who want to know how many are using it.
(I would still prefer to sell it, and offer it without ads). In the end this is the best revenue for me, rather than having to try and get other people to "invest" in my projects.
Thanks..for..sharing..i was looking for rules and regulation...
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funeral urn
Or dont allow the users to download the content.
More worrying for you is that the ipad app course cannot be behind a login. So one user could pay for it and then his 50 colleagues could all use the link to download to his ipad
Sorry not got a solution, but whilst reading your post I realised this could happen
Eric, tx for the post and Phil for the reply. I, too, would like to know more about this.
I'm interested to see what solutions people come up with for this. This is a big concern for us because a lot of the information in our training is specific technical information that we want to keep out of the hands of our competitiors and criminals (technical training related to ATMs)
I suppose one of the things to do is to use a single use download link. I can also see this causing loads of problems with non tech savvy users.
I wonder if some clever client side password interlock gating could get this done for you. Here's a scenario:
You require a login to get access to a link that opens within an iFrame. This iFrame launches with a time / date code that feeds querystring. The querystring value is evaluated by Javascript on your launch page and automatically redirects to another page if the hashed time/date doesn't match.
This introduces several layers of pseudo security that should filter out most folks that might want a free ride. The first is the iFrame. The second is the client side querystring match. Two gates to get to that little blue button that enables connection to your iPad app. Since you're initially accessing with a browser and the folder itself isn't locked behind authentication, just the pathway to get there, this should work to deliver your content to the iPad.
/musing
Hoping Articulate will chime in on this one.
There must (?) have been some thought about this when creating the Player concept?
Bruce
This product is used commercially. For me to use it commercially, I need to be able to control its sale. Alas, that is fairly difficult in some ways.
My customers have been clamoring for offline versions of their courses/ downloadable. And I want to give it to them. But I cannot if I know it will be "shared" too easily. I love the idea of open-source (and like many of us here, we give lots of stuff away for free), but the product costs more than a 1000$, and I cannot live on good will alone.
There are a few "missing" features in storyline. (Sorry guys, I hate to be bringing bad news). There are tons of amazing features too. I am going to open a pro's and con's thread.
It has been a while since this thread was started. Anyone has any solutions or suggestions?
I have been raising a similar issue. See https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/mobile-player-cannot-access-content-on-android-and-ios-devices . It may be that Articulate is going to drag their feet on this one if they have an interest in deriving income ($200+/month) from Articulate Online (see https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-presenter/how-to-protect-video-files-from-downloading ) that can provide the kind of video protection you seek Eric V. Doing so would eat into their own bottom line so don't be surprised if nobody from Articulate chimes in on this thread.
Do you think that publishing a .ipk (Android) or .ipa (iOS) app directly from Articulate Storyline would solve your issue? Have you come across any solutions in the 2+ years since you began searching for a solution?
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