Hello! I know before someone says to do a search, I have done one. It seems I haven't found anything that would cater to my needs, so please read this if you can. Thanks so much for your help.If I have made a mistake in posting this thread in the wrong forum, please excuse me... if possible, then move it.

Ok, here's my situation... next week I need to distribute to a group of people some of my medical work, programs, video, audio, notes and study tips all in the sum of 18 CDR's (ppt/xml/word/mp3/wmv/dss/rm data and audio files). The thing is my cdr copies/backups are in a non copy protected format. What I need to do is burn CDR copies of this material into a secure copy protected form.

Ok, before I continue, let me add that I am aware there are many many programs out there which will take the protection off like Alcohol or CDClone or what not. Stop grinning. I also figured that you could probably open these documents,save them etc.... or copy the cdr onto your HDD and burn them perhaps. Some people might say just encrypt the data. Unfortunately, this material needs to go out to these people to see,hear,read... and encrypting it is not going to help.

Now you're asking... why the hell are you doing this?? Well... it's just some people in my med school think everything is handed to them in a silver platter, and that isn't the case always. I know how people can be sometimes, and that some of this will probably be copied, but I could slow it down if at all. All I want is, that they come to me to directly get the matierial. I hope some of you would understand. I've spent practically 8 months doing this work,research,phone calls,$$$, etc. I'm not trying to boast about anything, make a profit, or go and get a copyright. It's just the principle.

So what steps and programs should I try and do for this?

I have two drives: one Internal CDR/W/DVD Combo Drive (on my Toshiba Satellite Laptop WinXP Pro,PIII,256mb,20G hdd) and an External USB 2.0 48X Plextor drive. The only software I have is the latest version of Nero Burning Rom (If I should use something else, then do let me know).

I was planning on putting the unprotected CDR in my internal drive, and creating a copy protected CDR on the external. Or should I copy the unprotected CDR contents back to my HDD?

I've also checked this and other forums, looking for a solution. Nothing too relevant. I really would like to get an opinion if there is a good secure way to do so? Also is there a way for not giving permission to copy files onto the hdd from the protected cd?There has to be some readily accessible programs out there that can do this. All in all, these copy protected CDR's have to be working and readable. I've checked these places already:

This forum's search function (create & protect)

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware...cted%20CD%20#1

http://tzcopyprotection.cjb.net/

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtop...hlight=protect

Yeah I know it was a bit long to read. Thanks again for all your help, advice and opinions in this matter. I hope there is something that can be done.

As far as I know there is no copy protection that can really stop the people from copying the files as they have to be able to open them. You could make a complicated .exe file which opens all the .doc .mp3 .avi or whatever files in the .exe and protect that exe with a complicated Copy protection but I would say this is too time eating.
So you want to slow down the spreading process. Well the only thing that comes to my mind is altering the file size of the files on the CD. Scroll down in the list of threads in the Recording Forum a bit, there's already a thread about it.
It won'T stop someone from burning the CD who has a closer look at it but it will stop those guys which try to put it in and click "burn".
I hope I could help a bit.

[edit]Click here for the thread I talked about [/edit]

Lol, been there several times in the past, believe me i understand

soopersonic is generally right in what he says. I have found that this way of protecting your work does provide some basic protection which is enough for most computer illiterate colleagues of mine.

Check out this thread. It is quite old but will get you on track

Hello Hemispasm & Soopersonic! Thank you both for your replies.

Yes I did try to look those threads you have mentioned prior to my post. Lol, you're right on the $$$ how this topic keeps resurrecting itself. Trust me if there was a simplified organized way, then my thread would have never existed. The only thing is from what I have read about PC Guard is that it only protects .exe files and not other formats (i.e. text,jpg's,word,ect..) As soopersonic has mentioned, I don't know if I could just create a disc w/ an .exe that expands all the files. The main purpose was for them to just see, hear, and read the material from just the disc.

Maybe I should have clarified this (though I do not know by how much more I can. LOL) a bit deeper. This seems to be a very difficult subject... sort of how it is easier to break in rather than to protect a IT Network for example.

The contents on my CDR's are already in a directory archived format. Meaning for example, x:/patholgy/audio/*.mp3,*.wav | x:/patholgy/lectures/*.ppt/*.doc | x:/pathology/slides/*.jpg/*.gif So if I was to record this as I mentioned before (scroll up if you can) from my initial post on this thread, how can I just add protection to the entire cd without altering the file and directory structure. Or if the file is needs to be altered, as long as it is works.

Wow, I think I have confused myself even more. Google hasn't been the been my best friend regarding this subject. I end up getting stuck in the corner again. I really didn't think all this I was going to expect much difficulty.


Thanks again for your feedback.

Oh, and have a wonderful, safe 4th of July for all those celebrating! Enjoy the vacation from work and for those out from school.






MrClark

Well as you already have the finished directories I would really advice to simply alter the filesizes of the files. Make them all bigger than 2GB and you will stop those guys from simply copying the CDs. If you had more time The only way I could think about is making an .exe file which opens the data from .cab files for example which cannot be extracted so easily (like games do) and protect that exe with the protections above. But as you don't have that time (and perhaps knowledge) at the moment the only thing you can do is altering the file sizes imo.