[This article was first published in the November, 2010, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.]
William Aleman sent this:
I’m happy to share that I have found the feature I was looking for to lock QuickTime movies from being downloaded or saved by the visitors on the Internet. I was looking for this solution because I had posted a QuickTime movies, blocked it for downloads and a friend of mine was able to use the “Save As” feature and download it anyway.
The features consists in using AppleScript Editor to write the commands inside the video clip file, Instead of depending in the use of HTML or XML syntax like <“KIOSKMODE=”True”> among other types, which do not offer as much protection as the script method does.
The target command is “Save as Un-editable”. After setting this savable property to false, the original movie is exported as a self-contained movie. Out of respect to the authors of the book I’m not displaying the content of the AppleScript command but anyone interesting on the subject can find extended information in the book “QuickTime for the Web” For Windows and Macintosh, third edition, 2007, published by Apple. The included CD that comes with the book, also provides about 100 scripted droplet files for QuickTime. The book also describes other tricky methods to protect the QT movies in general.
In addition to internet file copy protection, the video clip can not be copied, saved or modified after it has been scripted unless the user has a special tools to un-lock the commands. So, anybody using this feature should always apply this commands to a copy of the original file, otherwise the original can not be saved or altered in any way.
Of course, today anyone can use a screens hot software to copy the content of a video clip, but at least this will stop the honest users, as the authors of the book called them.
Larry replies: William, thanks for sharing this.
