Can I Copy Protect My DVD's
 

I recently taped a nurse graduation/pinning ceremony for a combined two schools. One school bent over backward and purchased multiple copies. the other school's students now have reverted from their original order of 30 to a whopping ONE copy. Wonder what they have in mind? How do I record DVD's to eliminate someone copying them.

Paul
Studio 27
Bowling Green KY

You can not.
So it is silly to sell media or make the price of a work based on media sold (or expected to sell). Refuse this arrangement.
You sell a movie or your work on a movie.
They want just the movie, sell on per hours of work or pre-agreed project price basis and give them the tape.
They want a DVD ? sell the conversion/authoring work on DVD-R Master (1 copy).
Price it a decent price (equivalent to 20 DVD in your case?) and allow them to make any copies they need.
They want more DVD ? sell them as per item duplicated. If you are good, the price proposed should dissuade them to do it elsewhere.
If you are smart, you can make a really nice "Master", on high quality DVD-R, with nice print and original box, so it will be difficult (or costly) for them to duplicate this nice work, so they will probably come back to you for duplication.

Paul it depends on the Authoring software you are using, until recently I was using Ulead DVD Workshop SE. This software did not have copy protection but now I have up graded to the full version DVD Workshop 2 I can now apply Macrovision copy protection systems to my authored work.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

you can apply the macrovision copy protection, but it won't work on dvd's that you burn.

Thanks for the info Dan, I just assumed it would work on projects no matter what the final out put would be, either burnt or pressed.

I will have to re read the manual more closely.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

"This software did not have copy protection but now I have up graded to the full version DVD Workshop 2 I can now apply Macrovision copy protection systems to my authored work"

Macrovision and CSS data are for pressing plants.. they have no affect within a DVD process which is using achemical based media.. for one, the storage requirements for these schemes are LARGE.. not to mention the licensing fees required to actually have the capabilites of embedding this to your project..

Its a shame, i totally feel for you mate.. ive had a corporate party of over 4000 guests preorder theyre copies (abotu 2000 copies all up) i was going to get this outsourced.. a week later, 7/8s of those orders were cancelled much in the same situation you were in..

but even if we do have the ability to include this kind of protection, people use programs like dvdshrink3 to bypass it anywya.. they only hav to do this once to ruin you...

I agree with Giroud, but it depends on the initial terms you agreed to. If the deal was for 30 and now they only want one, I don't think I would even sell it to them, or make your minimum order 30 DVD's and let them worry about selling them. To go from 30 down to 1 is sketchy. Maybe you can sell it directly to the person who wants it but I'm pretty sure you're about to get ripped off. As for the other school, make certain you put "their" name ALL OVER the DVD, that way the students from the other school (the one trying to screw you) can't get a friend from the first school to make a dupe for them without it having the wrong school name on it.

The other issue is, next time sell the service, not the duplications.

I hope it all works out.

I agree with Rhett. Tell them all bets are off.

If they are still interested, tell them to pay, in advance, for the 30 copies, which you will gladly deliver once the check has cleared than bank.

Or... simply charge for the one what 50 copies would cost.

Jay