Is there any way to protect an ecommerce product from being printed by the customer and then resold?
0622 asked:
I am looking at setting up an ecommerce site but I dont know how to protect my products from being photo copied or printed and then resold
I am looking at setting up an ecommerce site but I dont know how to protect my products from being photo copied or printed and then resold
If your product is information rather than something physical, then it’s damn near impossible to prevent someone from transcribing or printing the info.
You can try to format your data with some kind of DRM (Digital Rights Management) scheme, but those tools cost money to license and use, and often cause compatibility problems for end users (your customers) which would drive them away.
If you want to protect your product then make sure you have a legal copyright on it. If you have a valid copyright, you can then use weasels — er, I mean lawyers — to stop violators and even recover damages for violations of your copyright.
However … if for example all you’re selling is the compilation of pre-existing information, like compiling a booklet of info you scraped off the internet, then you don’t have a copyright leg to stand on.
Hope this helps!