Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

My ultimate goal is to purchase a computer service franchise.  To get there, I need money.  I have writen a small how-to book that I would like to sell on ebay as an "ebook."  I can secure the document in Adobe, but what I cannot prevent (as far as I know) is keeping people from buying 1 copy, and reselling the same PDF file as their own.  Yes, I can copyright the work, but that will not stop people from doing it.  The only thing I can think of is to have a POD (print on demand) publisher prepare the ebook and somehow link a auto-renewing listing on ebay (if there is such a thing) to the publishers site for product fulfilment.

 

Any ideas?

thanks

I have a couple of great reports I`ve written as well and would like to sell, but I`ve been told more than once, that it doesn`t matter how hard you try and protect yourself, if anyone wants to resell the ebook, it will happen with or without a copyright.

In fact all they would need to do is rewrite it in their own words if they choose to, and call it something else.  The subject matter isn`t a basis for a lawsuit, and if they rewrite it in their own words, then its no longer under your copyright.

It won`t matter how much you spend, people will always try and find a way to profit from your hard effort...

Good luck.

jerik

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Cu Gelert - The Legend ... If you`d like to know the value of money, go and borrow some... It is especially hard to work for money that you`ve already spent, on things that you never needed... Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!

A friend of mine and I are in the middle of writing software that will secure your "pdf" version with will make it vertually impossible to copy or share unless they retype the entire book... But, as you may have guessed... it`s not complete yet. As soon as this software... and publishing technique is complete, I will be sure to tell the nation.... The Start Up Nation!


Start it up!

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

I agree - an Ebook is really hard to protect.  

 

A few ideas:

1.  Why not make it a real book that you`d ship to the customer?

2.  You could also make the Ebook accessible via a password protected website - so it would be a webpage, not a download.

3.  Maybe your Ebook has trade value - Ebook trading, link trading, etc.

Good luck!

-Kevin

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Sleep is for the uninspired

http://www.inflatablemadnessdvd.com
http://www.buybackmadness.com

www.lulu.com  I`m going to make it available as a softcover as well as an ebook.  I`m just trying to find a way to get exposure and make money.  If I have it "published" it will just sit there, I need to get the "word" out.

Please keep the ideas coming!

Thanks.

I even entertained the idea of just selling my e-reports on ebay with the right to copy just to make some extra cash.  After all, its great information, but it won`t let me retire from it.

If you decide to do the soft cover, I have a great contact in the printing biz.  Let me know.

jerik

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Cu Gelert - The Legend ... If you`d like to know the value of money, go and borrow some... It is especially hard to work for money that you`ve already spent, on things that you never needed... Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!

This lies at the heart of the uproar over DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management (you can look it up in Wikipedia). Essentially, people are trying to figure out how to protect intellectual property in a digital age of ebooks, MP3 downloads, movies, and so forth.

The problem is to also allow personal users a way to at least share their purchase with family, but to prevent wide-scale re-selling of a downloaded property. And...to make it simple, like buying a paperback book at the drugstore, or sharing a cassette tape in the old days. CD music began the problem, as a digital recording produces a copy exactly as good as from the factory.

Adobe and several other systems offer this type of protection along with their copyrighting. You may need to update or upgrade your version of Adobe, but the later versions of all these publishing packages provide you with many ways to secure your rights. The best way I`ve seen is to link the user with an unlocking key, much like registering software.

So for example, you sell the PDF file on eBay to JohnSmith. After downloading, John goes to a Web site, registers, and gets a key. Suppose John then decides to sell the book, or make a copy. Whomever then tries to register that copy will have a document ID number the same as the first registration and be disallowed. If he sells the book and no longer retains the copy, the ID goes with it, much like writing your name on the inside cover of a book. I`m not sure, but I think there`s a counter that allows very few copies to be made, if any, and the counter is embedded in the document file itself.

There are other schemes, some of which are very sophisticated. They involve embedded coding within the PDF that allows only 1 name to be entered the first time the document is open. You can secure a document, assign various rights, and so on.

My suggestion is to focus your search tactics on "ebook protection DRM" in search engines like Google. You should find many programs less expensive than Adbobe, all of which offer some form of after-market protection.