Paying $: Any way to protect small mp3 sound files embedded in a web page?

Question

I run a website that uses small sound files to teach users a language.

Currently I embed each little mp3 inside flash buttons (they press 'play' and they hear the sound, a short voice recording).

But these small Flash files are unprotected, meaning that anyone can open the Flash file with software such as SoThink, and redistribute my sound files (if they wanted to) via P2P. It hasn't happened yet, but if possible I'd like to prevent it.

But I can't think of any way to do it. Encrypting the Flash files doesn't work - this type of software only encrypts the actionscript, not the resources.

Embedding my Flash sound file within a Flash loader doesn't seem to work either .. both Flash files (loader and sound file) end up in the browser cache.

This also happens when loading an external mp3 file with a flash loader - the mp3 file ends up in the browser cache and is easily copied.

So, can anyone pleeaasse think of a way to protect my sounds?

I'll even pay you (several hundred $) if you can set up a complete solution for me!

Thanks,

Tom.

Answer 1

I'm sorry to tell you in the end, there is no way to protect your files from being stolen.

There are steps you can do to protect your files. Posting them on a website flash is the probably the best way to do it. ( i don't know about javascript)  You can encrypt the actionscript which will make it much harder to figure out where you loaded it from. Flash will read the mp3 as audio even if you rename the extension (so instead of sound.mp3, rename it something.tbn or other weird extension) I'm not sure if it's the same with AS 3.

A determined person can't be stopped. In the end most people who have an audio card can record exactly what they hear from the computer (it records it internally so it will be a high quality sound file). But best of luck to you. And if you find out, tell the major recording studios, because i'm sure they have spent a long time trying to figure this one out.

One last suggestion, you could try creating an exe file that they download since that would be much harder to get the files extracted from, but it still can be recorded straight from the computer.  

Answer 2

This is exactly what digital rights management (DRM) was designed for.  You can't use MP3, you'd need to use a protectable format, such as WMA.  You'd then transmit a license to authorized users; without the license they can copy files from browser cache until their fingers bleed, but the sound files will refuse to play.

Sadly, as the previous answerer pointed out, there's just no getting around those who'd record the sound as it's played, much like a picture: if the user can see it on his screen, he can steal it; all the owner can do is lawyer-up (an incomplete and expensive solution, to say the very least.)