It's a bigger problem than most people realize. Information theft. Copyright infringement. Fraud. With the advent of the Internet, where information is so readily available, it is a problem that is growing in leaps and bounds. People often don't understand that when they "borrow" graphics or text from other web sites that they're actually stealing. They think this information is "free" -- theirs for the taking.

Why is this a concern? After I tell you about what happened to me, I think you'll understand...

I would like to take a moment to tell you about a personal experience that taught me an invaluable lesson about protecting my intellectual property from pirates, thieves, and other such scam artists.

I'm sure by now most of you have heard me mention my book "Car Secrets Revealed". It's been the #1 best-selling car book on the Internet for the last 3 years. I now sell it as an eBook for $29.95, but it previously came in two versions. The first version was a paperback book that was shipped via courier, while the second version was a downloadable file in PDF format that was password protected.

When we first began selling the downloadable version of "Car Secrets Revealed", there were not many options available for packaging information products. In fact, at that time, the only decent choice was PDF, so that is what we were stuck with. We were successful with the PDF version for a long time, though we were aware of the risk that we were taking by distributing the book in this format.

Then it happened...

We received an e-mail from a very loyal and concerned customer! He had just visited a web site that was selling our book! At first we thought that maybe it was one of our affiliates, seeing that we do have an affiliate program for this book. However, when we went to the URL our customer directed us to, we were stunned!

Not only had this person decided to redistribute our Car Secrets book, he had even copied our sales material, using his own secure server setup to take orders! This person was blatantly ripping us off, filtering away profits that were rightfully ours... and we never would have known had our customer not tipped us off.

After a long and nasty legal battle which cost us a fortune in legal fees, the situation was resolved and this person was forced to take any reference to the book off his web site. What a nightmare

We were lucky though! Had our customer chosen not to bother reporting this guy, we would never have known he was pirating our software! Can you imagine the revenue we would have lost?

But worse yet, imagine if he had decided to distribute the information for FREE -- this could have literally destroyed our business!

Why would people pay for something that they can download for free?

It's true that there are various eBook software packages on the market with built in "security features", declaring that your information will be protected with passwords. This sounds good on the surface, however, you need to be careful!

All eBook software is NOT created equal!

Be an informed consumer when choosing your eBook software and consider the following:

1. Are people going to be able to "share" the password you give them? I personally had an experience where someone announced their password along with the file in a newsgroup and I had hundreds of my product stolen! It was a very frustrating and costly lesson! You want to be able to limit the number of times a password can be used.
   
   
2. Are people going to be able to copy and paste your information? If your eBook has no copy protection, then you should expect trouble! Anyone with a word processor will be able to copy and paste your information in infinite quantities!
   
   
3. Do you have control of your product, even once it's in your customer's hands? What happens if your customer requests a refund… or if they do not make well on their payment? Do you have any way of disabling the product? Or are you forced to let them keep it?
   
   
4. Does the software allow you to include hyperlinks, graphics, audio, video, forms, etc...? Interactive eBooks exude a kind of professionalism that gives you a HUGE edge on your competitors. Be sure that your eBook software gives you the option of including technologies such as Flash, Shockwave, Real Audio, Real Video, Javascript, etc...
   
   
5. Does the software ensure that your eBook is easy to compile? Once you've written your eBook, how long is it going to take to compile? Will it take weeks of frustration or a few short minutes of "point and click".
   
   
6. Is the price fair? There is no reason for you to spend thousands of dollars on expensive software or professional programmers. Cheaper alternatives exist… take advantage of them!

These are questions that you MUST ask when choosing your eBook software. Of course, now I'm sure that many of you are wondering what, exactly, your "options" are. Good question! eBook software offers a wide variety of formatting possibilities, each with its own benefits and dangers. These include:

• Text files: While text files are supported on any platform, they are very, very insecure! If you send out your information as a text file, you can certainly expect it to be stolen.
  
  
• DOC files (Word Documents): DOC files are not a very good way of distributing information products, chiefly because it takes no time at all for the file size to grow quite large -- they can take forever to download on a 28.8kbps modem. DOC files do allow for slightly more security than text files -- you can password protect a Word document so that it cannot be viewed until the password is entered. Unfortunately, you have no way of controlling whether or not this password is shared.
  
  
• PDF files (Adobe Acrobat): PDF files allow you to add pizzazz to your presentation with images and they have a great compression ratio, so they download quickly. However, they only provide limited security through password protection -- people can easily share your password, making it easy to distribute your eBook in large volumes. Also, if the customer doesn't already have an Adobe Acrobat viewer installed on their computer, they will be required to download it before they can access your product. This will be too much hassle for most folks, particularly those with slower modems.
  
  
• Custom Built Files (Macromedia Director): Custom built files are great because they are designed to your specifications, and can be password protected. Unfortunately, once again, you have no control over whether or not people share your password. Also, unless you are a professional programmer yourself, you will need to hire someone to design and build it for you. This can be VERY expensive!
  
  
• HTML Documents: If you decide to distribute your information package in HTML files, you can use any Internet technologies that you see on a web page. The customer can literally surf through your document. Keep in mind, however, that HTML files can be extremely insecure -- people can simply upload your files to the Internet to create their own site using your information!
  

Having taken the time to compare these formats, it really appears that where one shines, another fails. You might be thinking at this point that if we could just combine the best features of these different options, we would have the ultimate product that would meet all of our needs... Maybe?

Unfortunately, the answer to this is NO! There is one important feature that is consistently absent from all of the above formats -- the security feature!

If you want to publish a product electronically, you need to be sure that people cannot steal or share your work. While the above options do allow you some measure of security through password protection, this is by no means going to prevent pirates from stealing your work. Why?

Because these passwords can be shared! Plus, unless you can encrypt your work, it is easy for thieves to copy or even cut and paste your information.

These are the giant stumbling blocks that we encountered when trying to publish our information products electronically. After our personal experience with product piracy, we became acutely aware of how serious this security shortage was. We no longer felt secure distributing our information products online because we realized how easily this kind of theft could destroy our business.

Information is a HOT product! As a result, ensuring that the packaging for your publication is secure will be the biggest obstacle that you need to overcome before you will be able to safely sell your product on the Internet.

However, I have great news! Having learned our lesson from costly personal experiences, we decided to take matters into our own hands and develop a piece of software that will allow you to securely market any information product on the Internet!

The name of this software security wonder? eBook Pro!

With minimal time and effort, eBook Pro will provide you with the kind of security that our times and your business demands!

Let me tell you... there was NO WAY I was going to begin selling my "Insider Secrets" course electronically until these security issues were resolved. There was just too much at stake... namely my business!

Now, however, I am pleased to announce that "Insider Secrets" is available as an eBook. We did it! It took a full year of research and revision, but we finally managed to develop eBook software that has even me sleeping easy!

Thanks to eBook Pro, I'm now 100% in control of each and every copy of my product that I distribute online. It was designed to provide the kind of security that WE need to sell our Internet Marketing Course... and now we're offering this same amazing technology to you! You too have the opportunity to be secure in the knowledge that your information product is pirate-proof!

It is absolutely critical that the eBook software you choose allows you to distribute your intellectual property in a secure fashion! It can literally make the difference between the success and death of your business. This is not an issue that can be taken lightly. We know... we had to learn this lesson the hard way!

Click here to learn how you can obtain your own, personal copy of this technology that is about to revolutionize the world of electronic publishing. eBook Pro has raised the standards... and the stakes! Take advantage of our rock bottom, introductory offer... made available FIRST to our Marketing Tips subscribers.

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