how to block people from duplicating my external hardrive

[Noahtuck]

Too true, No one uses my computer, not family or friends. I get a slow but steady amount of virus infected computers in for cleaning here at work where: I hear My nephew (Niece) or friend only used it for a couple of minutes and now I have a virus.

Yep!!

Had a buddies laptop that was massively infected, fixed it up for him and he never let anyone else touch it since and has not had 1 problem in 8 months!
He let his nephew on it
I could also name quite a few more just off the top of my head in the last year, even month.

All these encryption and password protections won't help it from being deleted or the EXT. HDD being lost or broken....

[Sultans Of Sing]

I came to this thread looking for the answer to the question posted and found hundreds of "don't give the friend your drive". Quite frankly, this is a waste of a response as it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION, but gives advice. This is not an advice column, but a HELP FORUM.

I have a different scenario that needs the answer to this question. I own a DJ/Karaoke business in which I have 3 systems. My music is expensive and I have bought 3 copies of all the songs so that I have legal rights to have the same selection on all 3 systems. At times I will have all three gigs booked at the same time. All my music is on external drives for ease of updating.

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

So an answer to this question is relevant...

I don't need advice, I need someone with the knowledge to ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Thanks In Advance!

[Wolfen]

I came to this thread looking for the answer to the question posted and found hundreds of "don't give the friend your drive". Quite frankly, this is a waste of a response as it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION, but gives advice. This is not an advice column, but a HELP FORUM.

I have a different scenario that needs the answer to this question. I own a DJ/Karaoke business in which I have 3 systems. My music is expensive and I have bought 3 copies of all the songs so that I have legal rights to have the same selection on all 3 systems. At times I will have all three gigs booked at the same time. All my music is on external drives for ease of updating.

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

So an answer to this question is relevant...

I don't need advice, I need someone with the knowledge to ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Thanks In Advance!

Try this out it might help you, Maybe.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

[smrpix]

If you do encrypt the drives and don't give the operators the key, how will they be able to play the music?

[filmboss80]

If you do encrypt the drives and don't give the operators the key, how will they be able to play the music?

Good point. It must also be noted that many of the responses in this old thread were appropriate common sense answers to the OP's particular situation -- in that he was going to loan his hard drive to a friend. There's no need to get all whiny about the things that needed to be said to address the mindset of that specific party.

[Cornucopia]

I came to this thread looking for the answer to the question posted and found hundreds of "don't give the friend your drive". Quite frankly, this is a waste of a response as it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION, but gives advice. This is not an advice column, but a HELP FORUM.

I have a different scenario that needs the answer to this question. I own a DJ/Karaoke business in which I have 3 systems. My music is expensive and I have bought 3 copies of all the songs so that I have legal rights to have the same selection on all 3 systems. At times I will have all three gigs booked at the same time. All my music is on external drives for ease of updating.

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

So an answer to this question is relevant...

I don't need advice, I need someone with the knowledge to ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Thanks In Advance!

The answer to your question is basically the age-old answer to the copying/copyright-protection question: If it can be played (and in your case it SHOULD be played), then it can be copied, regardless of the protection you put on it. There are a number of apps available (I own 2 of them) that will capture the sound of any audio being played on a system, via the "WYHIWYG" or similar drivers. This is regardless of copy-protection, encryption, etc. To be able to play it, you have to have read access & the decryption key. Once you have those 2 things, if you have at any point in the playback chain a non-"locked" link, you can tap in there. Well, guess what? The last few links in the chain (driver, analog out, speakers out) are ALL non-locked, even if the previous links weren't.

You could put up tons of obstacles, which would have the effect of pissing off your DJs (especially the "cleaner" ones), but would only be a slight, temporary stumbling block to the ones who would still attempt to copy. Changing your setup to where you are all in it together to help each other get ahead, and making sure you've got good folk to work with, is a much better working relationship all around and also a much easier technical setup.

Scott

[AlanHK]

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

You can't give them the ability to play the files without also giving them the ability to copy them.

The only possibility is to have the wired connections (audio/ethernet/whatever) from the drives physically inaccessible/locked behind a door. But a mixing deck must be accessible and will have numerous out connections, analog and digital. But this would limit them to capturing music they were playing in real time, they wouldn't be able to just copy folders of files.

But making all that mobile and easy to set up in random locations would be basically impossible. You have to trust the person who sets up the system in each location, they will necessarily have complete access.

Just come out and tell them that they can't copy the files, and if they do, they'll never work for you again.
Tell them all file accesses are logged (even if they aren't.)
Anyway, anyone who wants music and doesn't care about licensing can just torrent it.

[deadrats]

I came to this thread looking for the answer to the question posted and found hundreds of "don't give the friend your drive". Quite frankly, this is a waste of a response as it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION, but gives advice. This is not an advice column, but a HELP FORUM.

I have a different scenario that needs the answer to this question. I own a DJ/Karaoke business in which I have 3 systems. My music is expensive and I have bought 3 copies of all the songs so that I have legal rights to have the same selection on all 3 systems. At times I will have all three gigs booked at the same time. All my music is on external drives for ease of updating.

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

So an answer to this question is relevant...

I don't need advice, I need someone with the knowledge to ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Thanks In Advance!

allow me to laugh at you for actually paying for 3 copies of each song

[transporterfan]

I came to this thread looking for the answer to the question posted and found hundreds of "don't give the friend your drive". Quite frankly, this is a waste of a response as it DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION, but gives advice. This is not an advice column, but a HELP FORUM.

I have a different scenario that needs the answer to this question. I own a DJ/Karaoke business in which I have 3 systems. My music is expensive and I have bought 3 copies of all the songs so that I have legal rights to have the same selection on all 3 systems. At times I will have all three gigs booked at the same time. All my music is on external drives for ease of updating.

As I hire new KJ/DJ's I am hoping I can trust them not to copy my selection to their own external drive or their own computer. I don't want to have to "hope". I want to be able to block them from copying the files. Or, if they do copy the files, the files will not work on their system.

So an answer to this question is relevant...

I don't need advice, I need someone with the knowledge to ANSWER THE QUESTION...

Thanks In Advance!

You have been answered. You just don't like the answer. Billion dollar industries can't protect their works.
What you want to do is not feasible unless you run a server and your DJs connect their kit via internet connection.
To 'ANSWER THE QUESTION': you can't protect a storage device from being copied.
You can limit access, on site, by giving the DJ only User permissions but it requires an Administrator to be there to grant access rights. The disk files still need to be block encrypted so the volume is locked the minute it is removed from the computer. The Administrator still has to be on site with the DJ at all times in case of power-outages, need to reboot etc.

And to top it off, (1) Administrator privileges don't mean sh*t, as they can be easily hacked and accounts bypassed
(2) Anything which can be 'heard' can be recorded.
(3) Your answer: IMPOSSIBLE

[jman98]

You have been answered. You just don't like the answer.

Not only that, he grave robbed this thread just to throw a bitch fit about 3 year old answers.