OK, so I (like all of you) am mighty ****** off with these torrents exposing our secrets.

Only the other day I saw S.C.A.R.E.D by Jamie Daws on a torrent site.

This has to stop.


What can we do as a group to help combat this issue?

Passwording the ebook? - They put the password in the title.

Only sending ebooks to those you trust? - No one will ever learn new effects.

Videos on youtube to private members - people can still upload the methods.

It seems no matter what we do its almost impossible to keep our secrets.

So I put it to you the fabulous members of the Café, (even though I know for a fact numerous people on here download these torrents and hurt the artists) what can we do???

It's time for change. In the words of Obama - YES WE CAN!!!

Now lets combat these torrent pirates!!!

Peace & Love

Matt

Does anybody know if there's a way of passwording an ebook that is person specific - ie if the password was passed on in a title, the perpetrator could be easily shamed?

Merlin

One way would be, ironically in my opinion Matthew, to avoid going to such sites in the first place which is in effect condoning such action.

Just a thought from a fluish guy who can't sleep at 2 am.

Merlin, you could do that by hand for every person that purchases the book, but it starts getting quite time confusing and means that people need to wait before they can download the book.

It is possible to encode PDFs server-side, so providing you capture purchase information - Name, IP, paypal transaction id perhaps, this could be added to the PDF and then encoded at the point of download. Nice and automated, but I'm not sure how good server-side pdf makers are r.e. formatting.

Either way, the information is useless if you can't be sure of the information you are including/basing the password on.

This all becomes a little moot if you start thinking about how you will identify your purchaser. It's pretty simple to open a 2nd paypal account with a fake name and purchase from a public wifi spot. The thought of shaming Micky Mouse with the same IP address as the local Starbucks doesn't seem all that effective.

Assuming you can identify the purchaser, the technology that secures the document isn't hard to circumvent. If you permit printing of the PDF, making a non-passworded version, or edited version is simple. If printing isn't permitted, it becomes a little more difficult, one would need to crack the password or take screen grabs of each page, then make a PDF out of the images.

The sneakier way is to play with the wording of the actual document. For example rewording certain sentences, changing punctuation elements, white space and so on. This it easier to identify the source of a shared document and makes it a bit harder to circumvent. However, if two people compare the differences between their files and change any unique parts, the system breaks down.

Assuming you can use one of the above methods to identify the original purchaser of an effect, you still have the difficulty of actually taking any action against them or to a lesser extent causing them to feel any shame. Laptops get stolen, left unattended etc etc.

I personally don't think there is much that can be done about the current situation. Sad but true. Creative industries bigger than this one have tried and failed. It's simply a cost of doing business, much like shop lifting... it would be nice to minimize it, but there's little in practical terms that can be done.

Most sites now provide a password remover application too which can be quite effective against password pretected documents/pdf's etc.

Yes, you generate them personally with random passwords and keep a database of which has which password. When one turns up in the wild, you know exactly who passed it on.

Not true. Rather, only the people that a given creator trusts, will learn that creator's effects. The onus is then on those who want to learn, to earn the trust of the creator. That doesn't sound like a terrible thing to me.

Why would they do it? That's what baffles me.
Why would they want to pay for some random unknowns to have access to their files?????

The snag with this idea isn't the password part; it's the shame part. The reason this is a problem in the first place, is because we have spawned a vast and ever-growing sub-culture of people who literally feel no shame about taking what isn't theirs. Unless and until that changes, all the protection schemes in the world won't help -- especially when a whole new disposable identity is only a few keystrokes away.

What were YOU doing at the torrent site? lol jk

Here are some of MY thoughts (i.e. OPINIONS) that I feel could "help" the issue

1) If you want to market something, market a specific product or a BOOK. A real life hard cover BOOK...you know, like the old days. Sure it can be scanned, but its a bump in the road that many will avoid. I long for the days for a VALID, EXPERIENCED performer to release a quality book. Sadly, I think those days are gone.

2) Stop ripping people off with over inflated prices and re-hashed material. Produce something of VALUE and people would be less inclined to share the info. - $30 for a one trick DVD is FBS!! And I (as many already know) and many others are...SICK of a the so called "big shots" scratching each others backs to hype a POS product. If there is quality in an item and the purchaser doesn't feel duped or ripped off, he may be less inclined to share the idea. SIGH...this is a topic I could nag about all day....and I have....so let's continue...

3) Don't visit torrent sites

4) Get magic sales OFF the internet. Take it back underground..brick and mortar, mail order with catalogs...where it should be. This will NEVER happen but that would probably be the most effect way to see the torrents and general sharing decline.

5) Get rid of the ebook manuscripts all together. See 1) I for one HATE ebooks. Nothing beats a real book. Admittedly I sold an ebook years ago for a short time and then went back to a physical product. Eventually I discontinued the item, for a couple of reason; one I realized what I had was WAY too good to share with just anyone, other than my closest friends and colleagues, which I would give to them for fee and for the other, see #6

6) Don't market your stuff. Keep it to yourself and you won't have to worry about getting ripped off.

Just my thoughts


Also on the topic of password protecting a PDF, it's useless. Passwords can easily be removed with a click of recovery program. And if the password is know, can be easily removed completely from the PDF, again with a simple program. I dealt with that when I sold my ebook.

I am not sure how other encryptions work, but PDF passwords are useless.

Scared is one of the cheapest effects on the market though. That's one of the saddest things about this example.

TMOCA - Right on!

Unfortunately, I believe sharing is a wave of the future that will continue to happen despite the attempts to stop it. With the Internets creation came benefits and downsides and all accepted that fact when they signed up for the net. It is much like what I do for a career, the more criminals I arrest and take off of the street 3 pop up to take the place of 1. I believe this is just something we will have to deal with for many years to come. I also agree with someones post above that inflated egotistical prices have contributed greatly to people using torrents. On the other hand, if you think a price is too high simply refuse to pay it and move on to find another effect you think is worth the value. It is a debate and a problem that will continue on and no matter how many torrent sites are taken down there will always be far more spring up to take its place and the battle begins again. Personally, I think there are far greater issues we should be focusing on and that is such things as child porn etc. Of course I am sure for a creator torrents are a big issue but when compared to the safety of our children it is meager in comparison.

As an aside, I had a friend who was filming a video for police to view in order to know how what to look for in terms of unlawful entry and while shooting the video he received a call that 2 men broke into his "high security" alarm business and store several of his key generating machines. Ironic isn't it?

Kyle

Born again ay???

Oh the irony of the original post, lest we forget a few months ago, its author openly admitted to stealing other peoples work through the same said torrent sites that he still frequents...

Now you want advice to stop others from stealing the new ebook you've written? I don't get it???

See I'm all about forgiving and forgetting but this really does come with some restrictions No.1 being that the same behavior does not continue.

Very interesting...

One thing that will help ensure this: if even people who oppose the practice continue to refer to it by the laughable euphemism of "sharing."

Sharing, stealing, borrowing with the intent to never give it back, whatever term you wish to use it is unlawful in either instance under either term you choose to use. I know you are not picking on me Quinn just the term I chose to use which is fine, a better term would have been "stealing."

This issue reminds me of when my state was deciding whether or not to allow concealed carry. The Sheriff's all rallied and were against it while certain legislators were for it. The point was even if the conceal and carry law was blocked criminals would have still carried guns concealed leaving the law abiding citizens defenseless.

The point I am trying to illustrate is that no matter what is done those who have a desire to steal will continue doing so and with a medium such as the internet at their disposal that has little to no regulation and varying country laws that protect/hinder these people it will continue on. I think this will always be an up hill battle that is never won. I think the harder it is fought the more insatiable the desire to do what is unlawful. Look at prohibition here, people began trafficking it, making it at home, selling it in back rooms etc and so once government regulation lessened peoples desire to get it also declined.

Right or wrong I still firmly believe because of an unregulated internet we will never see a total victory over sharing, stealing, etc.

Kyle

Silvertongue I did admit to downloading torrents years ago

I also admitted that I have deleted those files and am on my way to purchasing each and every one as a way of repenting.

I frequently check the torrent sites to see if any of my ebooks and other peoples are on there.

I fully admit that I am guilty of doing what others have done however I now know why what I did was wrong and the files have long since been deleted

(I have a photocopy of mind myth and magic if anyone wants to trade! Joke!)

I respect your opinions and I have asked for forgiveness in my post

Peace and love

Matt

Well said

I check out the various torrent sites weekly. I have quite a bit of intellectual property being “shared” and I like to keep an eye on what is being stolen from me. Sometime, depending on the site, I can get it taken down.

I also check eBay often. eBay has been good about terminating fraudulent auctions.

Once I found a dirt bag selling bootleg copies of my Fighting Pistol and Fighting Rifle DVDs as well as the DVDs of several other instructors. I contacted all of those that he was stealing from and contacted eBay. They canceled the auctions and his account. Come to find out the guy had actually trained with us in the past. That made me feel just great.

Did you threaten to use the videos tactics against him?