Security for a Small Stock Photo Company

ExTex asks: "I am a commercial photographer, and I also run a very small stock photography company. Most of the sales that I make are to existing clients or from referrals. Currently, when I make a sale I upload a ZIP file of the image and create a unique web page for the customer to download. I pull the page shortly after the client has confirmed receipt. This is easy, when I'm in the office, but can be a challenge if I'm out in the field on a shoot. At some point I'd like to be able to have 400 of my best images already pre-zipped and loaded to my web host for quick download. I'm wondering how best to secure the images to prevent unauthorized download but also make it relatively easy for the typical un-savvy client."

Comments

Looking for an off the shelf solution?

[ip_vjl]

Are you looking for an off the shelf solution for this?

Because this kind of thing would be pretty easy with any scripting language (PHP, Perl, ColdFusion, .NET, what have you).

Just issue a 'ticket' (token in URL) to the client when they purchase. That token can be stored on the site to allow access for a certain amount of time. You could also throttle it so that too many attempts on the same ticket trigger a lockout until you've had a chance to review it.

Otherwise, send them the URL (with the token) and give them 24 (or whatever) hours to download the file. (If they try to download more than X times before the ticket expires - lock it out until you've made sure it isn't that they've given the ticket out to 10,000 of their friends).