Offer downloads - help

[FACTplayers]

Hey guys, we want to start offering downloads of our performances on our website. Our webhosting company uses cpanel2 which offers free installs of cubecart, oscommerce, and zen cart.

What we would like to do (to keep costs to a min) is offer the product as a download and when we sell a copy give the buyer a unique coupon to use to download the video. Zen cart would work, except we don't want to require buyers to create an account before they can download.

Does anyone have a way for us to do this? Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[DuckJordan]

Hey guys, we want to start offering downloads of our performances on our website. Our webhosting company uses cpanel2 which offers free installs of cubecart, oscommerce, and zen cart.

What we would like to do (to keep costs to a min) is offer the product as a download and when we sell a copy give the buyer a unique coupon to use to download the video. Zen cart would work, except we don't want to require buyers to create an account before they can download.

Does anyone have a way for us to do this? Any help would be much appreciated!

I'm very hesitant to offer suggestions based upon the fact you are being very vague about what you are offering for download. If its any material not your own, (if its a script or music or something else that you used to create the performance) then you cannot distribute or record unless you have specific rights to do so. Buying the performance rights does not necessarily mean you are allowed to record and redistribute.

 

[FACTplayers]

I'm sorry, it's just a video of the talent show we just put on every year. Nothing illegal.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Even with a talent show, you will need to make sure any music that is used is not copyrighted as well as any visual elements used. It's common for venues to have performance rights for music (dance or plays), but that doesn't give you the right to reproduce that material. If all music is original in the talent show, then we can start to progress in finding you a way to help. I would feel horrible if we gave you the advice that then came back to get you sued.

 

[cpf]

There are plenty of better ways to go about offering online downloads to accompany physical products, too, a full e-commerce system is very overkill. Another concern is the bandwidth, storage, and connection speed required to serve large amounts of content like you suggest. Of course, please see above.

 

[FACTplayers]

There are plenty of better ways to go about offering online downloads to accompany physical products, too, a full e-commerce system is very overkill. Another concern is the bandwidth, storage, and connection speed required to serve large amounts of content like you suggest. Of course, please see above.

There is no copywrited material in any sense of the word. All we have are skits and juggling acts. Also, we have unlimited bandwidth, storage, and connection speed. Our hosting company is one-of-a-kind, great!

 

[cpf]

There is no copywrited material in any sense of the word...

(In the US and Canada) Any original work that anyone creates (a script, a performance, etc) is automatically copyrighted. You'll want to get all the creators to sign an release form stating that they agree to allow you (the company) to record and reproduce their image and their work. There are plenty of resources online to develop these, and I believe it's possible to get these things signed after-the-fact.

I'm not a lawyer, so if you want a definitive answer to the rights question you should probably talk to one, they'll be able to answer all your questions.

 

[FACTplayers]

(In the US and Canada) Any original work that anyone creates (a script, a performance, etc) is automatically copyrighted. You'll want to get all the creators to sign an release form stating that they agree to allow you (the company) to record and reproduce their image and their work. There are plenty of resources online to develop these, and I believe it's possible to get these things signed after-the-fact.

I'm not a lawyer, so if you want a definitive answer to the rights question you should probably talk to one, they'll be able to answer all your questions.

I understand where this is coming from, but none of our performers have a problem with this. We have a list from opening night, of people (someone related to every performer) requesting copies of the video. Does anyone have a suggestion for me on how to accomplish what I need?

 

[techno89]

For a donation to your group, they can receive a free download of the video

 

[FACTplayers]

For a donation to your group, they can receive a free download of the video

Great advice! Now, how do I offer the download?

 

[Tex]

Great advice! Now, how do I offer the download?

You could just use a PHP script to password protect the page with the download link. Something like this:
PHPBuddy.com - Simple Password protection using PHP
When somebody pays, send them the password. Of course, this won't stop people from sharing the password. To do that, you'll need a more complicated setup. There are some paid scripts here that will do what you want. The most expensive is $30.
downloads - files - CodeCanyon

 

[SHARYNF]

In stead of sending them the password you could send them the video, if it is not massive.
Sharyn

 

[FACTplayers]

In stead of sending them the password you could send them the video, if it is not massive.
Sharyn

The files are about 2 gigs... so can't send via e-mail. At first it seemed like the people on here had a good way for me to send out unique codes or links, but now it doesn't seem like it. What we are going to do is just send out a shorted URL via email. They will be able to share it, but it's all I came up with.

 

[cpf]

No matter if it's a shortened URL or a SSL-secured system with two factor authentication, if you allow more than one download, people will still be able to share the credentials. The only way to (partially) close that loophole is to have a system that, on entering the code, opens a 24-hour window to download the file from the IP address of the first login. Such a system would almost definitely require a custom-built setup, so maybe ask around your organization for people who've done web programming and see if they can whip something up (it's a very simple system).

Actually, If you PM me I could help you out with it.

 

[LXPlot]

No matter if it's a shortened URL or a SSL-secured system with two factor authentication, if you allow more than one download, people will still be able to share the credentials. The only way to (partially) close that loophole is to have a system that, on entering the code, opens a 24-hour window to download the file from the IP address of the first login. Such a system would almost definitely require a custom-built setup, so maybe ask around your organization for people who've done web programming and see if they can whip something up (it's a very simple system).

Actually, If you PM me I could help you out with it.

Even with that sort of system, the people could still share the thing if they're really dedicated enough to put it on a flashdrive, or in dropbox, etc.

If I were in this position, I would simply write the show to a DVD disk, as those are somewhat harder to rip from than saving it as an MPEG or related file type would. Doing it completely in the cloud would be tricky without some sort of advanced programming anti-piracy stuff like Apple or the record companies do. But DVDs are very easy to make but rather difficult to remove music from without time spent. Plus, people are more willing to pay for DVDs, because the parents are still from the time when they paid money for a physical thing and felt that it was worth more.

 

[cpf]

Even with that sort of system, the people could still share the thing if they're really dedicated enough to put it on a flashdrive, or in dropbox, etc. If I were in this position, I would simply write the show to a DVD disk, as those are somewhat harder to rip from and transfer (somebody correct me if I'm incorrect). Doing it completely in the cloud would be tricky without some sort of advanced programming anti-piracy stuff like Apple or the record companies do.

For the average person, sharing a 2gb file is much trickier than sharing a URL; the important part is to set the bar for efforts to "prevent piracy" at a level where normal users don't even notice it, but attempts at casual copying are discouraged. In most situations high-end DRM will only get in the way of users (just look at most PC games).

Also, DVDs are trivially easy to back up.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Speaking of Apple, can you just offer videos similar to how small indie bands offer their songs/albums on iTunes? There are plenty of Vodcast software options, if the hosting is available.

 

[Tex]

At first it seemed like the people on here had a good way for me to send out unique codes or links, but now it doesn't seem like it.

The Code Canyon link above has several low priced packages that do just that. They are easily installed on any server running PHP and MySQL.
These systems use a unique URL for each download. Each URL is only good for one download.

 

[museav]

I understand where this is coming from, but none of our performers have a problem with this. We have a list from opening night, of people (someone related to every performer) requesting copies of the video. Does anyone have a suggestion for me on how to accomplish what I need?

The very fact that you seem to be trivializing the rights aspects speaks volumes. As people have requested recordings of the performances that pretty clearly establishes that there is some value in such recordings while the comments about selling copies and the interest in tying distribution to donations seems to relates directly to obtaining financial benefit. It is not just a matter of what your performers think, it is also a matter of what the parties likely to be held liable for any rights violations and copyrights law think, so I suggest being very sure about the rights being properly addressed. If the content is all original/fair use/satire and all the creators are onboard then it's probably not a big deal to address and well worth the effort.

 

[FACTplayers]

The very fact that you seem to be trivializing the rights aspects speaks volumes. As people have requested recordings of the performances that pretty clearly establishes that there is some value in such recordings while the comments about selling copies and the interest in tying distribution to donations seems to relates directly to obtaining financial benefit. It is not just a matter of what your performers think, it is also a matter of what the parties likely to be held liable for any rights violations and copyrights law think, so I suggest being very sure about the rights being properly addressed. If the content is all original/fair use/satire and all the creators are onboard then it's probably not a big deal to address and well worth the effort.

Thank you all for your concern over copywrited material. I didn't mean to trivialize anything, and I do know what we are able to legally sell, give away, and use.