How can I sell my deck and keep it from illegal copying?

[Clemens M. Hürten]

Hi

as I mentioned in my postings before, I have created a deck with more than 700 items. And there are not only Q&A or multiple choice etc. in it, but there are explanations to each of the offered multiple choice answers, why one is right and another answer will be wrong. It took me pretty hard work, to write all this and so the file size of the deck is more than 10 MB.

So I do not want to share it without any money and so I want to protect this file against illegal copy. If AnkiDroid and Anki would offer such a feature of copy protecting decks, I would of course pay license fee to the developers of Anki / AnkiDroid!

Supermemo UX does contain a copy protect feature, if you buy the authoring version, which is very expensive (unrealistic). I am very happy with AnkiDroid, especially because of the non dependency of platform.

Is there a feature planned for copy protection of decks in future versions? And if not, how can I protect my decks on my own?

Kind regards

Clemens

[Matt D]

Hi,

I don't believe any such feature is planned.  Anki decks are just sqlite databases so there's no easy way to stop people from copying them.  Copy-protection like that would require some sort of centralised control to do right, and there's no clear pay-off in that work for the developers of Anki and Ankidroid.  It doesn't surprise me that you need to pay a lot for the Supermemo version that can do the same.

Of course, Anki and Ankidroid are open source, so if you're keen you can try implementing something and getting it into libanki..

Cheers,

- Matthew

[Nicolas Raoul]

Hi Clemens,

1) Could you please provide a link to the description of this
SuperMemo feature? I could not find anything like this.

2) Do you want to keep your decks just for yourself? If you do not
choose to explicitly share a deck, then it stays just on your
computers (and on the Anki server if you use sync, but it will not be
found in the "Shared decks" list).

Nicolas Raoul

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[enrico200165]

Maybe the OP is interested in selling content, the deck he mentions, maybe more.
There was already at least an extensive discussion some time ago on the anki desktop forum, in the discussion I mention the person asking for that feature was called Vincent if I remember well.
I notice that the planned changes for anki 2.0  include this
"Also of note is that ankiqt is now dual licensed like libanki was. I don’t have any immediate plans to take advantage of this, but it opens up the possibility of custom versions in the future for companies who want to distribute a stripped down and/or content-protected version of Anki with their content for a fee. The desktop version will continue to be released as open source, and I have no plans to change that."

On Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:46:12 AM UTC+1, Nicolas Raoul wrote:

Hi Clemens,

1) Could you please provide a link to the description of this
SuperMemo feature? I could not find anything like this.

2) Do you want to keep your decks just for yourself? If you do not
choose to explicitly share a deck, then it stays just on your
computers (and on the Anki server if you use sync, but it will not be
found in the "Shared decks" list).

Nicolas Raoul

[Nicolas Raoul]

Ah, thanks Enrico!
I had not read the title, that's where Clemens spoke about selling, indeed.

It reminds me about this thread:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/anki-android/A9bjM30NE2M/l1CHg7TucycJ

In a nutshell, I was writing just like what Enrico is talking about:
1) Create a proprietary deck "ProSpanish.anki"
2) Package it with the AnkiDroid code into a new Android app
ProSpanish.apk (just change namespace and app name)
3) Sell ProSpanish.apk on Google Play or other markets.
This way, you make money, your data is protected as well as any other
app on Google Play, and the GNU-GPL is respected (I think? Or is LGPL
needed for this?)

Confirmation from GNU-GPL/LGPL experts appreciated :-)

Cheers!
Nicolas Raoul

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[Fabien SK]

Hi,

I think that whatever you do, you can not give an absolute protection to
your deck, you can just make it painful for the bad guys to copy it
illegally. The entertainment industry failed to achieve this and they
have much more resources than the anki developers.

You should make sure that you are not making it annoying only to your
legitimate users. Maybe you could do like Nicolas proposed. The problem
is that your users will not benefit from Ankidroid updates. I also don't
know how you can at the same time allow the user to update the deck file
(with the revisions) and prevent him to copy it. Maybe you could find a
way to separate your data and the user generated data (in two sqlite
files), but it will require you to code.

Fabien

Le 16/03/2012 16:22, Clemens M. H�rten a �crit :

[Diogo V. kersting]

A good way to deal with ilegal copying is selling for a good price and make it easily available.

This makes not worth the time looking for the ilegal copies. And for the people who still go for the ilegal copies woudn't buy anyway (with luck they can work as publicity by telling friends and social networks about your product).

This is the way most ebooks are sold in the internet.

Now if its a difficult process to buy, you'll probably lose even people willing to pay.

On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Fabien SK <fabi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

[Clemens M. Hürten]

Hi Nicolas!

I have been very busy, so my answer is delayed. First I want to thank all programmers, contributors etc. who have created Anki and AnkiDroid, because I have learned playfully and easy all the stuff for my examination (1. part in writing form) and I did pass it well!

Concerning your first mark:

The Supermemo UX feature is not a special feature, but a separate program, which can not easy be found on their website. I checked it now and did not find it anymore. About 1 year ago, I had a corrspondence with them, as I was interested in buying that »Supermemo-UX Authoring Software«. The conditions were not acceptable and too expensive for me. Further I would not be allowed to sell my own "authored" Supermemo Courses together with the free downloadable version of Supermemo UX. So my customers could only get the course from me and then seperately had to download Supermemo UX from their website.

The only good thing on that authoring software is, that the course is packed with Supermemo's own compression algorithm and it will be extracted on runtime of Supermemo UX, when the customer has loaded the course and typed in its licence code. By this, no user is able to access the course in plain text and do some export of content or copying etc. - And this is exactly the feature, which I would like to have in Ankidroid and why I started this thread.

Another problem is, that Supermemo people have promised an android version about two years ago and they did not offer one til today!

Concerning your second mark:

As the other contributors in this thread already did answer: Yes, I do not want to keep the Anki deck for myself but I want to sell the deck to other students. My first requests among other students showed, that they were willing to pay more than 50 Euro for this course.

As I am not familiar with coding / programming etc. I will not create a specialized version of Anki / Ankidroid with my deck integrated in it. And as I am a very critical user of Google (due to their collecting and exploiting of personal data of their users), I am not interested to distribute anything via "Google App Market" or "Google Play"

Now I can follow one of two strategies:

I can sell it at 50 Euro and thinking, that someone, who has payed the pretty sum of 50 Euros will have a feeling for the worth of the deck and thus he will not be willing to give it away for nothing or for copying. I think, that the legal owner does not need the deck anymore, when he has successfully passed the examination and then he will perhaps sell the deck for nearly the same price, but he will not give it away for free or as a copy.

On the other and, I could sell it at 5 Euro or 10 Euro. But then I think, people will not see the worth in that deck and so they will be more easy tend to copy and distribute it. The price then should be so low, that copying is more work intensive, than the price. But my deck is not for the mass market and will be of interest for a very small and very interested target group, so that such a low price would let people think, that the quality of my deck will be unacceptable.

What is your oppinion to this marketing problem?

Kind regards

Clemens

> anki-android+unsubscribe@​googlegroups.com.

[joed...@excite.com]

Clemens_1,

 

Just in case you missed my other post:

 

Regarding your problem, I have "two very good ideas" for you and I would love to discuss them with you in more detail ... but ... like you ... how do I benefit from just giving away "advice & ideas"  which will enable you to market a protected deck for 50 Euro?

 

If you're interested ... let me know ... and I'll have a contract prepared ASAP. I won't charge you for the contract ... but ... there will be a slight fee to cover postage & handling.

 

If you would like to proceed with this ... let me kown!

 

Joe

[joed...@excite.com]

Clemens_1,

 

Regarding your problem, I have "two very good ideas" for you and I would love to discuss them with you in more detail ... but ... like you ... how do I benefit from just giving away "advice & ideas"  which will enable you to market a protected deck for 50 Euro?

 

If you're interested ... let me know ... and I'll have a contract prepared ASAP. I won't charge you for the contract ... but ... there will be a slight fee to cover postage & handling.

 

If you would like to proceed with this ... let me know!

 

Joe

On Monday, March 26, 2012 5:12:54 AM UTC-4, Clemens_1 wrote:

[dmsmi...@gmail.com]

This sounds very interesting to me, the dual licensing and the possibility for companies  to make their own version of Anki... but it says AnkiQT.... what is ANKIQT and how is it different from the regular Anki??

And how much work would it be to strip down Anki(QT) so that clients only can use the deck of the company and not create their own decks?

I would appreciate if someone would contact me about this (I also want to create a deck to sell it, obviously a very extensive and high quality deck).... at dmsmissaert at gmail dot com ....Also the guy who has 2 solutions, please contact me about that.

Op zaterdag 17 maart 2012 06:37:54 UTC-4 schreef enrico200165:

[dmsmi...@gmail.com]

can anybody with solutions for the problem of selling decks for anki send me an email please? to dmsmissaert at gmail dot com  thanks in advance I am serious about this

Op vrijdag 16 maart 2012 11:22:45 UTC-4 schreef Clemens M. Hürten:

[Xiao Sun]

Nobody would want to use a stripped down, limited version of Anki so that they can use a company's deck. And nobody would want to use a deck that can not be modified. Your goal of selling Anki deck with DRM is a pipe dream.

[Michiel Miguel Michael Smissaert]

Mm I tend to not agree.... because people can use my version for my deck.... but also the full version of course since it is free.

Nothing prevents them to use the full version too.

The other reason makes more sense, that people cannot change the deck....

but if the deck is good, why would they want to change it?

I do not understand that.....

Thanks for your input though.

Would it hard to create a stripped down version of Anki with a deck with DRM??

Thanks

Michael

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Xiao Sun <financia...@gmail.com> wrote:

Nobody would want to use a stripped down, limited version of Anki so that they can use a company's deck. And nobody would want to use a deck that can not be modified. Your goal of selling Anki deck with DRM is a pipe dream.

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[Michiel Miguel Michael Smissaert]

What about the internet version of Anki? Would that work with soundfiles and pictures? Could I sell the inlog data of a deck that works with the internet version??

thanks

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Xiao Sun <financia...@gmail.com> wrote:

Nobody would want to use a stripped down, limited version of Anki so that they can use a company's deck. And nobody would want to use a deck that can not be modified. Your goal of selling Anki deck with DRM is a pipe dream.

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[Xiao Sun]

1. Who wants to use two versions of the same software? Nobody.

2. Two versions of Anki means that searching is limited to one collection, ruining one of the most important function of Anki, which is knowledge management. 

3. You think your one deck will satisfy the different needs of everyone? Because everyone study exactly the same thing? What if they want to added a note, or want to add a card type, or fix a mistake you make? Must they first contact you first and then redownload the deck? DRM Anki deck is stupidest thing I ever heard. It's not a movie where you can DRM it and distribute it, people watch it once and don't care about it. Anki decks is a collection of data that will need constant update and maintenance. It's like saying this is my textbook, you buy it and there is no need for you to write anything on it because it's good.

4. Don't know how hard it is, no one has attempted it in a decade, you might give it try and see how far it gets you. Don't forget you'll need the desktop client, mobile client and a server for sync. And a DRM technology and a distributing platform. So basically, it's not going to happen, it's a pipe dream.

[ganuo...@gmail.com]

Sorry for gravedigging, but I recently read the official annoucement from Anki and think it is helpful to share for anyone interested in: To quote the most important part:

The cards you create with Anki are your own, so you are free to license them as you please, and sell them if you wish. Anki does not include any DRM features to prevent users from sharing decks, as its open-source nature means any such protections could be bypassed easily. If your decks turn up on the Internet in violation of your copyright, you are of course free to send takedown notices. If you find your copyrighted content has been uploaded on AnkiWeb's list of shared decks, please let us know and we will remove it as soon as possible.

Source: https://anki.tenderapp.com/kb/anki-ecosystem/can-i-use-anki-in-a-company-or-school

[jonzo...@gmail.com]

I have thought of trying to sell decks too.

Flashcards are great, but they aren't a complete learning system. Consider embedding an advertisement for supplementary material, like a book, in your free deck.

[Sebastian Zocher]

Hi Clemens,

are you still working on decks that you want to have protected?

Cheers

[Xiao Sun]

bruh

[Xiao Sun]

nice to see my own reply from 8 years ago.

[Elmi]

Hey Sebastian, 

I'm working on decks I'd like to have protected, 

Please respond if you can do this;

Best,