If you have already created your online course on the Softbook platform, sooner or later you will start thinking about tools to protect your intellectual property. We do everything possible and within our control to address this concern.
First and foremost, it is important to remember three key points:
- It is impossible to protect videos from being uploaded to the internet. Encryption, watermarks, and similar protection methods do not prevent this.
- It is impossible to prevent screen recording of your lessons by third-party services and applications. Web browsers do not have control over individual users’ systems and processes. Therefore, promises of special protective software by developers are misleading.
- It is impossible to prevent the recording of videos using a smartphone camera or any other device.
How does the video protection system work on the Softbook platform?
The protection operates by restricting file access. In other words, if your course contains uploaded videos, users may attempt to download them using:
1. Specific browser extensions that parse the document, locate the players, and download the videos through direct links.
2. Individuals who access the document’s source code, find the video frames, copy the direct links, open them in a new tab, and download them.
In both cases, these users will not be able to obtain the file with your video because the system simply does not serve it. Instead of the expected player, they will see only two words on their screen: “Access denied”.
To learn how to protect other course materials from copying, refer to the “Сontent protection” manual.
Important: Video protection only works for videos uploaded to the platform from your PC or cloud storage. It is not possible to protect videos embedded in your lessons using a link from YouTube or Vimeo, because Softbook has no influence on the services and platforms of other companies.