Protect video footage...
 

So I'm not sure where to ask this so I'll ask it here...

A friend asked me just now if there was a way to post video footage via private access (this parts easy) but without letting the end user copy the footage and share it online with others?


At first I thought maybe the footage in flash, but I think you can easily just copy the .swf file right?


So I guess my question is, is there anyway to provide some kind of video feeds that can't be copied and then shared?

My thinking is no.....

You need actual streaming software on your server to accomplish this.

But remember that in the end, if you make a video available it can be stolen.

Remember the days of streaming Real Media player and ASF by Microsoft? Not sure if you ever had to do that...but wow, did Flash put an end to their business model! lol....

I agree, anything that ends up on the users browser can be copied....I guess I was hoping someone would come up with a genius idea....

:-D

YouTube would love if it there were a solution. FLVs are too easy to obtain. Best way is a watermark that is applied to the FLV, NOT to the flash player.

Youtube doesn't really stream, they play a file that is above the webroot. Streaming, unless I am mistaken, requires parts of the video to continuously be passed to the applications. To steal a video that is actually being streamed, you need a program to keep compiling the data.

But if all else fails, video capture works pretty well.