I have a relative simple business model yet I cant really figure out how to solve it:
I have hundreds of small videos that I produce and some of the videos must be paid to be watched.
I dont want the users to need a login. They just need their apple id to pay for the content. That way I dont need to server code.
I was thinking of using in-app purchases but:
1) Where do I host my videos? I think its best that they can be streamed.
2) How do I secure my videos so that people doesnt just share the urls (which they can get from a web debugger)?
3) Optional: Do you know a simple (maybe free) server for hosting a tree structure of data (in my case video categories)?
you can upload your video on youtube or on Vimeo in private channel. so no one can view that video without your permission. Then you can write code to play that private video.
Another way is you can host your own server and upload video over there. To stream video you can your server need access token. which your server has provided while login. in the way you can also prevent the user not to play video without paying you.
Related
I am currently working on an iOS app where users can watch several videos (e.g. fitness videos). The videos are all captured by my team, so I don't need access to external videos.
Now my question is, does it make more sense to store the video files offline right in the app or use some kind of online server (and which one would you recommend)? I don't want to embed Youtube videos.
Thanks in advance!
It is always better to go online. Because the size of video may vary and huge video files would scrap user device's memory. SO it is recommended to use an external server to host the video files.
You can also add an option to download the files if needed.
I'm building an iOS app and Android app that will display a series of private videos. Someone will purchase the app for x amount and then have access to the videos through that app only.
I already know a couple of ways to do that part. But the real trick is hiding the video urls to traffic sniffers/etc. I don't want anyone to be able to detect the video urls, or at least the endpoint will reject a request without an auth token.
So I could build my own Node/Express server, incorporate wowza maybe with Amazon to store the files - but that is a lot of work.
So what is the simplest solution to stream my videos to mobile without people being able to load up the videos outside of the app?
It looks like you'll need to implement some sort of authentication system, so that even if they get the video url somehow, they will be unable to view it without the authentication key.
Your videos should be hosted in a directory on your server that is inaccessible from the web. Then use some sort of index page which takes a parameter for the video ID and does the authentication before serving up the video file contents.
So I have a video product that I am about to start selling. Once people pay, they will be able to download the videos, or ideally stream it via YouTube.
But...I don't want them to be able to share the link with every Tom, Dick and Harry.
I know that an unlisted video can still be made public, so that won't work for me. But apparently there can be 'private videos' too.
Where can I learn more about this in the API docs? Or what is the best way to approach this? Especially given that I don't want them to have to have a Google+ account.
Ideally, they should be able to login to my app, and watch the embedded videos there. But they should not be able to share the direct YouTube link.
I know they can always share their account info, that's fine...I will do other things to keep track of and monitor that. It's really the anonymous sharing of the YouTube link I am worried about.
Thanks.
Read the API terms of service and check with your legal folks. Specifically, you will want to make sure that your sale of private content uploaded to YouTube is in compliance with #2 in the Terms of Service:
You agree not to use the YouTube API for any of the following
commercial uses unless You obtain YouTube's prior written approval:
the sale of the YouTube API, API Data, YouTube audiovisual content or
related services, or access to any of the foregoing;
I'm building an iPad app (which is actually going to be part of a promotional kiosk), which lets whoever wants, to record a video (at the place, using the iPad), in order to get a chance to win a prize.
But I just realized that the Youtube API seems to have changed and now it requires user authentication in order to upload the video - which can't be done in my case.
Has anyone faced this problem before? Has anyone found an alternative to uploading the video from the iOS app directly to a specific Youtube account (which I've got full control of) without requiring user's authentication?
Help is highly appreciated!
For privacy issues, users have to upload videos into their accounts first. There is one way to get around it.
You can use YouTube Direct Lite.
So user's would still upload their videos with their own credentials, but then you have the option to moderate and approve those videos to have them in your playlist.
Otherwise if you try to login with only one account and upload all videos there, you will hit limits really soon.
I am a bit confused about the YouTube API's term & conditions. If I create an app for users to download only their own videos. Is that against the terms and conditions?
I know downloading other people content is definitely prohibited, but is it the same for your own videos? Since user can go to their video manager and download their own videosm this would be only a short-cut?
Anyone knows can/cannot do this? I was thinking of using this library http://ytdownloadextension.codeplex.com/
Any guidance would be appreciated,
Covo
Seems like YouTube already allows you to do that, so I'd say it's legal:
Download your videos
You can’t download other people’s YouTube videos, but ...
You can download MP4 files of videos that you’ve uploaded to YouTube in either 720p or 360p, depending on the video size.
See Download videos that you've uploaded.
I don't think so the Terms of Service of Youtube or the Terms of Service of the API allows you to do so:
Excerpt of Youtube ToS (5. K):
you agree not to access Content or any reason other than your personal, non-commercial use solely as intended through and permitted by the normal functionality of the Service, and solely for Streaming. "Streaming" means a contemporaneous digital transmission of the material by YouTube via the Internet to a user operated Internet enabled device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be downloaded (either permanently or temporarily), copied, stored, or redistributed by the user.
Excerpt of the API ToS (II. 11):
store copies of YouTube audiovisual content;
Both, state in a very clear way that neither the user nor applications built using the API can "store" content, which is a very direct statement that disallows you from giving such an option in your app. Now, whether Youtube does give its users an interface to download their content or not is an argument out of sequence here as Youtube don't need to follow their own ToS, in other words, it's up to them to give their users such an option, but you can't give it to the users of your app.
I suppose you need a special permission from Youtube to give such an option in your app.
Yes. You can definitely download your own videos from YouTube as it is your own content so you have full rights to it as the creator of the videos.