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Ask Slashdot: How To Deliver a Print Magazine Online, While Avoiding Piracy?

Posted by samzenpus on from the please-don't-steal-this-magazine dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a technical magazine that has been available in print for over 40 years. Moving to providing an alternative subscription available online has been hard; the electronic version is quickly pirated and easily available around the world each month. We are a small company, and our survival depends not only on advertising but on the subscription fees. Do any slashdotters have experience of delivering electronic magazines via a subscription service in a way that is cost effective and secure?"

6 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Fingerprint it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The best approach for dealing with piracy is making it easy to go after those that do it, without making it harder for everyone else. There are a number of good fingerprinting / watermarking schemes around. Try that as first approach with a readable "This copy has been bought by XXX" marker on the first or second page to make it obvious that it is a personalized copy.

    1. Re:Fingerprint it! by TemperedAlchemist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nah.

      The best approach for dealing with piracy is making your content easily accessible, hassle-free (i.e., no DRM), and offered at a fair price.

  2. You can't avoid piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So just make it cheap and easy for real subscribers. If it's not worth someone's time to pirate something, they won't. Also, add something that can't be pirated, like an expert's forum, with article authors participating.

    1. Re:You can't avoid piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your problem is ill conceived, you are grudgingly moving to the web because that's what everybody's doing, but you aren't really willing to change the business model and ask for a way to keep things working like before. I have some bad news for you: the web is a completely new medium and you need to adapt or disappear - technical journals will survive for some time but they will eventually die just like the rest of the print media.

      To elaborate the parent's post: give it away for free, with a limit of free articles per device, a.k.a porous paywall. The heavy users will buy a subscription while the casual users willing to pirate but not subscribe will get the articles free contributing to your advertising revenue, which generally pays little for repeat visitors.

    2. Re:You can't avoid piracy by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree that you are looking at the wrong numbers. Who cares how many people are reading (pirating) it? You should only care about how many people are paying for it, and work to increase that number. One thing that comes to mind is special deals with advertisers that are keyed off the individual user name. Don't have a paid account? Don't get 15% off a widget... This could also be more advertising revenue.

  3. Re:DRM Free by Ragzouken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The simplicity is appealing, but you're just wrong. Some people will buy if they can't pirate. Some people will buy if pirating is difficult. Some people will buy if buying is easy. There are all kinds of people out there.