I know that there is probably no way to completely secure your Flash
development work if you want to have end users see it...I was wondering (not
having searched for/used the swf dissassembly tools), do you make it
"significantly" harder for someone to rip-off your content by streaming your
flash movies to them using Flash Communication Server? Or do the "pirates" of
the seas have their own set of tools for easily stealing even streaming content?

Thanks!

Peter S. Lee

Well I dont think you make it significantly harder because is someone really
wants that stream they will figure out how to get it, decompilers can show the
person the actionscript to where you store the files, or if you use xml it can
show where to find it...Flash Video has no DRM so anything you put in a movie
can get ripped.... :frown;

Its impossible to protect media. They can capture audio from their card (see
above on my post) and they can capture video by capturing it from their video
card.

Don't get too hung up on it, its the price of media serving. So long as the
amateurs can't, thats the best you can hope for.

Thanks folks. I appreciate the responses, but I do not think I got the answer
to the question I was asking (quite possibly because I did not phrase the
question properly).

Understanding up front that there is no way to 100% protect multimedia assets
once they are placed on the web, do I at least make it significantly harder for
the "casual user" to swipe my media assets by streaming as versus just plopping
it on a website and allowing a progressive download?

That is, if my ONLY reason to stream media was to prevent the casual user from
easily swiping it (which is not my only reason), and I could get a fairly cheap
streaming hosting package, is there some tool out there for a (non-computer
savvy) casual user that would make it rediculously easy for them to swipe?
Something like a one-or-two click solution for them?

Yes, I understand the realities of protecting media online (in short, you
can't), but this isn't about "reality." It is looking to be part of a business
case to upper management. If you are familliar with Corporate America, then you
know that upper management frequently doesn't deal with "reality."

Can I honestly say that there is any "significant" increase in media asset
protection by streaming? Or is it so insanely simple for the casual user to
swipe anyway that it should not even be a "tick point" in a business case?

As you may have guessed, I am an experienced systems developer, but am very
new to Flash (only about 3 months). I am in the position of having to make a
reccomendation very soon and was hoping to tap the experience of the gurus
here.

Thanks!

Peter S. Lee