Is there any method of copy protecting one-off DVD copies?

I have to burn half a dozen DVDs of my current project. Is there anything - anything at all that can be done to at least make a gesture towards copy protecting these?

I realize that it is futile in the face of someone knowledgeable or even remotely tech-savvy, however, maybe there is something out there which would act as a technical deterrent?

This is not for a long copy run. Just 6 or so "show" copies.

Any ideas - however futile - would be welcome.

Best

Harry.

You asked for futile, Harry, give this a try. You may be old enough to remember this.

Long ago, on Ozzie and Harriet, Ozzie had to protect some kind of valuable art object from theft, and he was very nervous about it. He had this dream where he was carrying the crate the object was in, and he had printed on it in large, authoritative letters: "VALUABLE ART OBJECT - DO NOT STEAL."

I have a feeling this is the kind of approach you are left with. I've seen this question come up here before on this forum, and it seems that copy protection can only be put on at the manufacturing level, not by a home burner. If that has changed, I'm sure someone here will jump in and provide the right information.

Scott

Thanks for the reply. I guess you are correct. There is nothing available at the DVD-R level.

I'll just stick some sort of notice on the front.

Best

Harry.

Protection filter, ie Text burned in. It can be a pain to personalize it but that should help as well.

If your giving it to a client, who does not instill trust. I recommend your own companies name and phone number. Timecode, too. That makes things busy enough that no one will try and crop it out.

Also, you could post it on Vimeo or Youtube, that is a marginally safer bar. There are more proprietary web delivery systems that might be a little safer. There are some great services just for post for this, but they cost in the hundreds per month. This is probably more in the vein of where things are going.

Probably a good subject for a whole unit at LACPUG, if it hasn't been done.

Thanks very much for the advice,

Harry.

> Protection filter, ie Text burned in.

That's called a watermark. Unfortunately, that also makes the piece nearly unwatchable. Any watermark that isn't large enough to distract from picture would also be very easy to crop out and otherwise circumvent. Also, mainland Chinese pirates apparently don't even care -- they'll duplicate the show even with a watermark on it.


www.derekmok.com

Ha! Thanks, Derek.

Since there appears to be no technical solution that is practical I going to put this caption on the front of the film. Bear in mind that these 6 copies are being sent to a selected few, so it seems borderline rude to put on the usual threatening copyright notice. Of course there is a copyright notice within the film itself.

This pre-release copy of
'xyz'
has been given to you trusting
that you will not allow it
to be illegally duplicated.

Thank you.

(The film-makers)

The usual way to do it is:

"Property of [Production Company Name]"


www.derekmok.com

I've noticed on long haul flights where I've seen a lot of movies recently that they burn in the name of the airline as a watermark at random times. This means that if the movie were to be stolen, the copier would have to watch the entire thing to notice where it had the watermark, and the source would be easy to figure out.

Sort of futile, but something, I spose?

here's a 2010 thread with info from our old freind Jeff Harrel:
[www.lafcpug.org]
(also some handy wrinkle cream info!)

bottom line seems to be no copy protection on DVD-R


nick