A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

moonlite wrote:

A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

What's going to be on the CD ? Ordinary computer files ? You'll be hard-pressed
to do anything to protect those.

This person is a 'friend' yet you don't trust him ?

Graham

In article .com,
moonlite wrote:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

If it can be read it can be copied. If text, no matter what you do to it
you could always just take a screen snapshot.

It's the same with music CDs - you may make it difficult to make a clone
or digital copy but you can still do it via analogue.

--
*It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article .com,
says...
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.


You do know that, if the work is his, a copyright existed from the
moment it came into being, at least in the US that's how it works. It
is just easier to defend if you have registered your copyright. That
being said, I know what one company does is to provide a password
protected ZIP file, and each copy has a different password. If they
find an unauthorized copy out there at least they can trace it back to
the original owner. If the info is that sensitive, you might check into
a quick and dirty trade secret agreement.

Jim

moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

On Jun 20, 10:00?am, (Michael Black) wrote:
moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

As you can see, several people answered my post without any
objections. You are in the minority my friend. The title of the post
pretty much describes what the post is about. In the future, if you
don't like a post just skip it and go to the next one. Do not act as a
Google cop.

On Jun 20, 11:40 am, moonlite wrote:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

Give it to him in .pdf format as an e-mail enclosure. At least he
cannot then alter the file.

But:

If you give it to him on paper, he can scan it.
If you give it to him as a standard Word/Excel/equivalent file, he can
alter it and then re-use it freely.
_ANY_ CD may be duplicated with sufficiently sophisticated software,
or via analog playback.

So, forget giving it to him on as any sort of electronic file that
cannot be duplicated. The best you can hope for is to make it
difficult to change (.pdf or similar). NOT impossible, simply
difficult.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

FYI .pdf is easily scanned.
I think this ends up as a trust issue.

--
Remove -NOSPAM- to contact me.

"moonlite" wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.


No, not really. A few CD copy protection schemes have been devised, but they
usually cause more problems than they solve, and all of them can be cracked.
The only way to prevent something from being copied is to not allow anyone
else to have it in the first place.

"moonlite" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 20, 10:00?am, (Michael Black) wrote:
moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important
technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting
this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

As you can see, several people answered my post without any
objections. You are in the minority my friend. The title of the post
pretty much describes what the post is about. In the future, if you
don't like a post just skip it and go to the next one. Do not act as
a
Google cop.


For your information, this is usenet, not google. And without usenet
"cops", groups like this quickly become useless. There are probably
hundreds of groups for which your post would be appropriate. Find one
and use it.

Be a good usenet citizen - not a problem.

Bob

Meat Plow wrote:

The OP could pack the files into a self extracting RAR file or series of
files protected with a password then record that to disc. Those intended
to use the data could then extract it on their end.

Aside from compressed file password protection is no real protection at all,
the OP said he didn't want his *destination* to duplicate the CD.

That is, he wants to pass over information for limited use, then throw it
away when they're done.

This requires trust on the side of the destination. And he clearly doesn't
have that.
--
Linux Registered User # 302622
http://counter.li.org

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:16:22 -0700 moonlite wrote in
Message id: .com:

Do not act as a
Google cop.

Sheesh.

This is NOT Google. This is UseNet. In fact, many UseNetter's wish that
Google would stop allowing people to post to UseNet through their
interface.

"Bob F" wrote in message
...

"moonlite" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 20, 10:00?am, (Michael Black) wrote:
moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

As you can see, several people answered my post without any
objections. You are in the minority my friend. The title of the post
pretty much describes what the post is about. In the future, if you
don't like a post just skip it and go to the next one. Do not act as a
Google cop.


For your information, this is usenet, not google. And without usenet
"cops", groups like this quickly become useless. There are probably
hundreds of groups for which your post would be appropriate. Find one and
use it.

Be a good usenet citizen - not a problem.

Bob



Well I feel that this is a totally relevant question for this group... What
if you have some sensitive material that is electronics related and you
don't want your info all over the web.

"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
. ..

"Bob F" wrote in message
...

"moonlite" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 20, 10:00?am, (Michael Black)
wrote:
moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important
technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting
this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

As you can see, several people answered my post without any
objections. You are in the minority my friend. The title of the
post
pretty much describes what the post is about. In the future, if
you
don't like a post just skip it and go to the next one. Do not act
as a
Google cop.


For your information, this is usenet, not google. And without
usenet "cops", groups like this quickly become useless. There are
probably hundreds of groups for which your post would be
appropriate. Find one and use it.

Be a good usenet citizen - not a problem.

Bob



Well I feel that this is a totally relevant question for this
group... What if you have some sensitive material that is
electronics related and you don't want your info all over the web.

Point taken.

Bob

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:23:55 +1000, John Tserkezis wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:

The OP could pack the files into a self extracting RAR file or series of
files protected with a password then record that to disc. Those intended
to use the data could then extract it on their end.

Aside from compressed file password protection is no real protection at
all,
the OP said he didn't want his *destination* to duplicate the CD.

Well if it's password protected then the data is unusable and copying then
becomes a non-issue. And when does a password offer no protection at all?
Explain that one to me.



Well for the intended user to access the data, they have to know the
password as well, at which point they can simply remove the password or give
it to anyone they give a copy to. For what the OP requested, a password
offers no protection.

moonlite wrote:

A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

what what you may to the CD, it does not matter because he can
simply move the data else where via normal routines.

WHat you could do how ever, is have a special app for lets
say viewing the contents which has been incrpyted and only the
viewer can show and thus also test for it from a CD
Place a physical error on the CD and have the reader look for it


--
"I'm never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken"
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5

Jamie t wrote in
:

moonlite wrote:

A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

what what you may to the CD, it does not matter because he can
simply move the data else where via normal routines.

WHat you could do how ever, is have a special app for lets
say viewing the contents which has been incrpyted and only the
viewer can show and thus also test for it from a CD
Place a physical error on the CD and have the reader look for it



Or write the data, then take it to a parking lot, place written side down
on ground, place foot on top and slide it all around.
Now it can't be copied.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

me wrote:

Jamie t wrote in
:


moonlite wrote:


A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.


what what you may to the CD, it does not matter because he can
simply move the data else where via normal routines.

WHat you could do how ever, is have a special app for lets
say viewing the contents which has been incrpyted and only the
viewer can show and thus also test for it from a CD
Place a physical error on the CD and have the reader look for it




Or write the data, then take it to a parking lot, place written side down
on ground, place foot on top and slide it all around.
Now it can't be copied.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----
You may think it's funny how ever, not to long ago I was supplying an
application that I wanted to protect. I had it on CD, and before
shipping, I would place a physical error in a section that contained a
large data table so that i know (after trial and error) of a few bad
disc where it was. I would damage an area. then read the data table to
locate the first error. Scan it several times incase it produced other
errors and
produced a serial number from that.
It actually worked very nicely.. One could copy the file from CD's
all they wanted for backups, but they couldn't get a working copy with
out the original disc.
Oh Well, it was nice until the company went out of business!


--
"I'm never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken"
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:01:22 -0400 Meat Plow wrote
in Message id: :

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:51:52 -0400, JW wrote:

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:16:22 -0700 moonlite wrote in
Message id: .com:

Do not act as a
Google cop.

Sheesh.

This is NOT Google. This is UseNet. In fact, many UseNetter's wish that
Google would stop allowing people to post to UseNet through their
interface.

Oh hell yes! You wouldn't believe the spam that google churns out daily.

Sure I would.

On Jun 20, 11:40 am, moonlite wrote:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

I have been thinking about this for a while. It's really not a
technical problem, but a people problem, one which lots of people in
industry run into.

I would suggest that you not give him the data. Your instincts seem
to be ruling against it, and in a case like this I would trust them.
The trick is to refuse while being diplomatic about it.

The first thing to consider is the actual ownership of the data on the
disk. If it belongs to your firm and not specifically to you, you can
cite your stated company policy about this sort of thing; tell him
that the firm has just recently cracked down, and that while you'll
help him any way you can, you can't get data disks out of the place in
good conscience.

If you own the data, or the firm, it'll be tougher. In this case, it
would likely be best to tell your friend that you must talk to a
lawyer to have a contract drawn up to govern your friend's use of the
data. This may scare your friend off. It sounds like he's taking
advantage of the relationship.

If you have a good imagination and interpersonal presentation skills,
it might not be impossible to convince your friend that the disk has
been supplied with Crown 16.7 anti-copying technology, which will
prevent the data from being copied accurately onto any other medium.
With Crown 16.7, a file copy will be made, but digits within any
numbers will be randomly scrambled, making any numerical data
useless. I personally think that this is a great idea, which is why I
made it up: Crown 16.7 is completely bogus, but he may not know
that.

M Kinsler

clearly up too late

"m kinsler" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jun 20, 11:40 am, moonlite wrote:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD. I have a feeling he wants to use it for
commercial purposes. Without getting copy rights, is there a way to
prevent him from copying the CD for other purposes ? Specifically, can
I do something to the CD itself to make copying impossible, or put
some kind of time limits on it so that it will become useless after a
certain period of time passes ? Thank you for your help with this
matter.

I have been thinking about this for a while. It's really not a
technical problem, but a people problem, one which lots of people in
industry run into.

I would suggest that you not give him the data. Your instincts seem
to be ruling against it, and in a case like this I would trust them.
The trick is to refuse while being diplomatic about it.

The first thing to consider is the actual ownership of the data on the
disk. If it belongs to your firm and not specifically to you, you can
cite your stated company policy about this sort of thing; tell him
that the firm has just recently cracked down, and that while you'll
help him any way you can, you can't get data disks out of the place in
good conscience.

If you own the data, or the firm, it'll be tougher. In this case, it
would likely be best to tell your friend that you must talk to a
lawyer to have a contract drawn up to govern your friend's use of the
data. This may scare your friend off. It sounds like he's taking
advantage of the relationship.

If you have a good imagination and interpersonal presentation skills,
it might not be impossible to convince your friend that the disk has
been supplied with Crown 16.7 anti-copying technology, which will
prevent the data from being copied accurately onto any other medium.
With Crown 16.7, a file copy will be made, but digits within any
numbers will be randomly scrambled, making any numerical data
useless. I personally think that this is a great idea, which is why I
made it up: Crown 16.7 is completely bogus, but he may not know
that.

M Kinsler

clearly up too late


You know, some data can be digitally watermarked, it can still be copied,
but then it's fairly easy to prove that it is in fact a direct copy should
it get leaked out.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:43:18 -0000, m kinsler wrote:

(snip)

If you have a good imagination and interpersonal presentation skills,
it might not be impossible to convince your friend that the disk has
been supplied with Crown 16.7 anti-copying technology, which will
prevent the data from being copied accurately onto any other medium.
With Crown 16.7, a file copy will be made, but digits within any
numbers will be randomly scrambled, making any numerical data
useless. I personally think that this is a great idea, which is why I
made it up: Crown 16.7 is completely bogus, but he may not know
that.

Unfortunately he (now) can't use Crown 16.7 - a google search would lead him
staright to the above statement ;-)

So he'd need to "imagine" a different monicker for the protection scheme.

Michael Kennedy wrote:

"Bob F" wrote in message
...

"moonlite" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 20, 10:00?am, (Michael Black) wrote:
moonlite ) writes:
A friend of mine wants me to provide him with very important technical
information on a CD.

This is not a repair issue, so why in the world are you posting this
here?

Your's is at least the second post today that is off-topic.

Michael

As you can see, several people answered my post without any
objections. You are in the minority my friend. The title of the post
pretty much describes what the post is about. In the future, if you
don't like a post just skip it and go to the next one. Do not act as a
Google cop.


For your information, this is usenet, not google. And without usenet
"cops", groups like this quickly become useless. There are probably
hundreds of groups for which your post would be appropriate. Find one and
use it.

Be a good usenet citizen - not a problem.

Bob



Well I feel that this is a totally relevant question for this group... What
if you have some sensitive material that is electronics related and you
don't want your info all over the web.


Then encrypt it on your computer, or don't use the files on a computer
that connects to the web.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida