I'm wondering if this would be possible to do before I shift all my media over to Amazon S3. I run a aMember-powered membership website (I figure you guys figured this anyway). Can I protect the Amazon S3 content... Hosted ON Amazon, so only logged in aMember users can view the content? If so, is it possible to display a custom error message to those who aren't logged in? Thanks. -David
Hi David, What is the reason for moving the content to Amazon S3, storage or bandwidth? If it is bandwidth than I would suggest considering a cache provider such as Panther Express. They have the ability to do a couple of different checks: 1) Check that the referrer of the file access is your domain (ie. no one is hotlinking to your files) 2) Check that the logged on user can access the file (ie. active aMember membership) You don't have to change anything on your end, just change your links from yourdomain.com to cache.yourdomain.com (or whatever you want to call the subname)..They pull the files from your server path the first time a user requests it and stores it on their worldwide distributed cache servers so that the content is as close to your customer as possible (ie. fast) without impacting bandwidth on your server.
Thanks, and... Thanks for the links guys. Out of interest, any one know how I can decrypt the Bill Myers code so I can edit a few things? Couldn't find a JavaScript decrypter which could cope, which was odd in itself. That and I don't install things on my server without knowing *PRECISELY* what they do.
Hi Found a link to this thread in my 'Todays Referrals' report You can use CNaming to hide the S3 folder where your media is being streamed If you look at the preview bar when viewing our tutorials you'll see we renamed ours to: "media.eZs3.com" Here's an example and the tutorial http://www.ezs3.com/public/194.cfm ---- We have an optional script that locks the media to your domain.. .. But if someone really wants to get it.. they will (eg use a screen recorder) http://www.ezs3.com/blog/?p=96 HTH TomC Founder www.eZs3.com (PS Though I am not an aMember owner - I hope the admin team will allow me to post)
Hi Tom, Welcome to the aMember forums Do you mean that using Amazon s3, there is no way of preventing unauthorized downloads/access? Lee
Hey Tom, Wouldn't be surprised if you got some traffic from my site as well- recommend you to my members who want to serve their content via s3. I think he means that people can use programs like camtasia to record onscreen video. This is the case no matter what the site its hosted on or how its protected. David
Hi Lee You can hide the route to the file.. well, the techs call it 'obfuscate'.. but the file has to be downloaded into the viewers PC... and anything you watch or listen to on a PC can be recorded using screen recorders etc Using the 'lock to domain' feature, you can stop someone using your bandwidth to show your material on their site That's really taking liberties! And though it's a bis issue, I've found that members are not as blatant at piracy as site owners may think they are.. I reckon that's because you know so much about them - email, address, credit card etc etc And.. I am seeing a reverse of all of this thinking.. eZs3 users are uploading micro video ads to give to affiliates. They are happy to pay for hosting of the video on other peoples sites and track the click throughs HTH TomC
Hi David Thanks.. I don't know your site, so I can't report I hope we can reward you through the affiliate program I run a membership like you guys here... different platform.. same challenges I'm doing some experiments this weekend.. we have a new 'transcoder' and I am testing 'Flip-to-Flash'... From your Flip camera straight to FLV in your S3 account... Working so far Regards TomC
Well, I've been working on this too as I want to host my flash files on amazon s3, but sell access via amember. I used bill myers script but you can still see the amazon s3 address, which is accessibly by anyone, in the bottom bar of the browser. So now, using regular built-in features of s3fox, cloudfront, and my dns i am going to change the link to look like it's coming from my site: digital.my-site.com/fileaddres.html However, how is that going to help anything? (how would it help if i used the ezs3 service either)? Now users have an even easier url to copy and paste, and distribute to their friends, to have access to my files, since I still can't control access to digital.my-site.com/fileaddress.html, can I?
I wonder if the amember_remote plugin would provide any help here. Maybe Alex can answer that? Thanks, Erwin