How to hide the video url?

[Chrisj]

In my php web site the video player appears and plays the video. In Chrome you can right click on the player screen and choose 'inspect element' etc, but another choice is 'Copy video URL'. How can I block that, or hide (or disguise/rename) video URLs?

[requinix]

Short answer is you can't.

 

Long answer is that you can make it harder but ultimately the "user" has to know the URL for them to be able to go retrieve and play the video.

The "Copy video URL" is because you're using HTML 5 stuff to show the video and you can't hide that; if you used a Flash player then you'd have full control over the right-click menu - but you still wouldn't be able to completely hide the URL.

[Chrisj]

Thanks for your reply. You said "completely hide the url". How about partially?

[CroNiX]

You will always be able to get the full url from HTML based video....otherwise the browser wouldn't know the url to retrieve the video from in order to play it.

Edited December 18, 2014 by CroNiX

[LeJack]

There's also stuff like the Ant Video downloader. You just install it onto your FireFox or what ever Ant is compatible with and it auto detects anything that is either video or music. Then you can download that particular thing.

 

If you're trying to protect your videos, then you're going to be searching for a long time. Nothing on the internet is safe. People think someone can simply use Javascript to disable right click and disable viewing sources, it's super easy to view sources.

 

FireFox: Tools > Web Developer > Page Source or CTRL+U

 

Internet Explorer: F12

 

Chrome: (The 3 horizontal lines on the top right corner) > More Tools > View Source or CTRL+U

 

If you don't want people downloading photos from your website and you don't make a download button for people to use. Well, all they need to do is right click on the picture then Save As. Or even better, if you disable right clicking, all they need to really do is what ever browser they're on, go to Page Info and it automatically shows all of the images and what not used for the that certain page. In FireFox, it shows what they are used for whether it'd be a background image or a background video.

 

So what I'm trying to say is, nothing on the internet is safe from downloading. Unless you put the file outside of your website where it's not accessible or if you Chmod it.

[Chrisj]

Thanks for your reples. In reply to "otherwise the browser wouldn't know the url to retrieve the video from in order to play it"

 

When a video, thru my website, is ready to be played, this shows in the browser:

 

www........com/results.php?x=178&y=16

 

So, the video url doesn't appear in the browser, the video(mp4) plays in the flowplayer that pops-up in a box over the page, but you can right-click (in Chrome) "Copy video URL", so someone could simply copy the url and play it over and over using my data transfer cost.

 

Can a random string be added to the file name via the player, or something, so the theif doesn't have the correct path/link?

[requinix]

That URL is the one where the player is getting the video from. No, you can't break it and make it incorrect because then the player wouldn't be able to load it either.

 

[edit] For the record, YouTube and porn sites have the same problem. If there was a way, they'd be using it.

Edited December 20, 2014 by requinix

[CroNiX]

I don't know why you're ignoring what everyone who is more experienced is telling you. If it's on the net and someone has access to it (like behind a login, or just open to the public), it can be copied. Period. You can spend as much time on this as you wish, but you won't accomplish what you're after and in the end you have only wasted your time. Even if you "obfuscate" the url the video is being pulled from (how would the video player play the video if it doesn't have the correct URL to retrieve it from), there are many browser plugins that will still allow a user to just download the video to save it. After all, you are sending the video TO the browser.Just google "prevent video download" and read up on the thousands of articles that will tell you it's not possible. This is no different from "how can I prevent someone from copying an image from my website". You can't.