Self Locking/destructing file

[Ichoumaz]

Hi.

i need to give someone a video file, but i dont want them to keep the video file forever, is there a way to lock the file behind a password that expires after a set amount of time or to make it so the file is deleted from their PC/ destroys itself? or does this only exist in movies?
its a complicated matter, but i need to do this to protect myself and my work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Franck]

No, that is not possible to do. If someone has physical access to a file you cannot protect it.

[Sauron]

14 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

does this only exist in movies?

Yes.

14 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

its a complicated matter, but i need to do this to protect myself and my work.

If you were a bit more specific we might be able to suggest a solution. If it's a matter of showing them your work before they pay you for it then a watermark might do the trick.

 

-edit-

actually, now that I think about it it's technically possible to do what you asked but you'd have to basically write your own media player, encrypt the file, have that media player contact a domain you control to receive the decryption key (using some secure form of authentication like public key), then stop providing that key after a set time. It's still not foolproof because they could just record their screen while it's playing though.

[Ichoumaz]

7 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Yes.

If you were a bit more specific we might be able to suggest a solution. If it's a matter of showing them your work before they pay you for it then a watermark might do the trick.

well, i got double crossed, i was one of the team members in a competition, and our project won, when it was time to patent it, one of the members decided to go behind our backs and put the patent under his name and exclude the rest of us, and we only found out about this yesterday.
and now he wants to add some extra stuff to the video to enter a different competition, i dont want him to get the file and then later on ditch us like he just did, so i wanted to know if there was a way to protect what i contributed to the project, so incase he decided to backstab us again, i'll be assured that he wont run away with my work, but i guess that is not possible.
and no, a watermark wouldnt work, not in this country at least.

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

well, i got double crossed, i was one of the team members in a competition, and our project won, when it was time to patent it, one of the members decided to go behind our backs and put the patent under his name and exclude the rest of us, and we only found out about this yesterday.
and now he wants to add some extra stuff to the video to enter a different competition, i dont want him to get the file and then later on ditch us like he just did, so i wanted to know if there was a way to protect what i contributed to the project, so incase he decided to backstab us again, i'll be assured that he wont run away with my work, but i guess that is not possible.
and no, a watermark wouldnt work, not in this country at least.

Honestly if I were you I'd ditch him. If he wants to enter that competition then have him pay you upfront for your work. Also I guess that depending on what he wants to add to the video he could film that part, then send it to you so you can add it to the existing video.

[Ichoumaz]

16 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Honestly if I were you I'd ditch him. If he wants to enter that competition then have him pay you upfront for your work. Also I guess that depending on what he wants to add to the video he could film that part, then send it to you so you can add it to the existing video.

no i doubt it, he is a conniving idiot, cant tell up from down, i'm doing the video from scratch, its a 3D animation of the project.
i dont want to just ditch him because i'm the only one thats gonna lose out on stuff, so i thought if he is using me, i'm gonna use him as well, but at the same protect myself, but we are getting off topic, anyways, thanks alot for the responses

[Sauron]

6 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

no i doubt it, he is a conniving idiot, cant tell up from down, i'm doing the video from scratch, its a 3D animation of the project.
i dont want to just ditch him because i'm the only one thats gonna lose out on stuff, so i thought if he is using me, i'm gonna use him as well, but at the same protect myself, but we are getting off topic, anyways, thanks alot for the responses

Well, again, demand that he pays you in advance.

[Franck]

51 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

and no, a watermark wouldnt work, not in this country at least.

Watermark is not illegal. At least not under WIPO which is a set of international law for media and "supposedly" apply everywhere in the world

[PositiveRaisin2]

Snapchat /s lol

[Ichoumaz]

17 minutes ago, Franck said:

Watermark is not illegal. At least not under WIPO which is a set of international law for media and "supposedly" apply everywhere in the world

its not the fact that its not illegal, its the fact that it will be ignored, by everyone, it wont do anything,

[Ichoumaz]

35 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well, again, demand that he pays you in advance.

i mean, we entered as a team to win a competition, and we did, and now he is trying to exclude us from the project, if me and the 4th guy leave the project, it will insta die, and everything will be gone with the wind, but if that is what he is after, i'll serve it to him on a silver platter

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

i mean, we entered as a team to win a competition, and we did, and now he is trying to exclude us from the project, if me and the 4th guy leave the project, it will insta die, and everything will be gone with the wind, but if that is what he is after, i'll serve it to him on a silver platter

Maybe you can threaten to leave if he doesn't give up the patent and let you register a new one together?

[Ichoumaz]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Maybe you can threaten to leave if he doesn't give up the patent and let you register a new one together?

yeah, thats my plan, i'm currently working on the video, i want to finish it today, so when i meet up with him tomorow, i can show him what he will be missing out on, and i've already talked with the other team members, and he is on board with me, i'll give him some time to get it sorted, but if he doesnt and refuses which i already know he will, then i'll humilate him in the upcoming round of the competition, when its time for us to present, i'll just sit there and watch the show, i'll let him get up there and try to present the idea he is so eager to take for himself on his own

 

[Franck]

I am curious on how on earth he manage to patent a video while video format have been patented for decades "probably" everywhere on the planet.

[Ichoumaz]

4 minutes ago, Franck said:

I am curious on how on earth he manage to patent a video while video format have been patented for decades "probably" everywhere on the planet.

no no no, he didnt patent a video, he patented the project itself, aka the idea, i'll explain in detail.
He was looking for someone to join him in the hult prize competition in this region, so i said that i'll oin your team, all 4 of us sat down and came up with an idea, we devided our workload, and "everyone" was assigned a task, i told him that i'll handle anything related to computers or translation, he said that he will do the prototype and the powerpoint, and a 3rd member said he will do the electronics, and the 4th guy just sat around and gave his opinion on stuff, i wasnt bothered by it, its not that big of a project to worry about, 1 freeloader wont hurt us too much, so we get to working, i finish my workload, the electronics guy finishes his workload, we turn to him, he hasnt done anything, didnt make the prototype, didnt even begin working on the powerpoint, being me, i took charge of the powerpoint with the help of the electronics guys, we did it in like an hour, while the other 2 slept, they stayed up all night working on the powerpoint, and all they did was download a few photos from google, anyways, we finish the powerpoint, we present our project, and we win, and one of the judges recommanded us to patent the project cause they saw potentiel in it, we all agreed that we will put it in the name of our team or all of the team members, but when he went and put up the patent, he put it only under his name and the reason that he is saying he did it that way is because he is the one that saught us out, so he concluded that its his idea and he can do whatever he wants with it, and can add and remove whomever he wants, and here we are.

[Tristerin]

Since you are in Algeria, and I don't even remotely understand how laws will apply, with likely as you said no one really caring - You are going to be screwed again.  I could espouse 10 cliché sayings, but Ill leave this one here instead:

 

 

[Ichoumaz]

2 hours ago, Tristerin said:

Since you are in Algeria, and I don't even remotely understand how laws will apply, with likely as you said no one really caring - You are going to be screwed again.  I could espouse 10 cliché sayings, but Ill leave this one here instead:

 

 

i'll just destroy the project and be done with it, if he is going to act like this, then no one will benefit from it.

[Ichoumaz]

4 hours ago, Erik Sieghart said:

Your first mistake is trusting this guy twice. You should just cut off all contact with him.

i'm past the point of trust, i want payback,regardless of how petty that seems, and i'm gonna get it, one form or another, he can kiss the competition bye bye, and can kiss the project bye bye.i'm in full on sabotage mode now.

[mariushm]

Make a company for yourself, the smallest possible (limited liability, whatever) and offer your services to him ... bill him for n hours of video rendering or whatever you do.

Have him sign a contract for this project and that would be a legal protection for you.

Make a contract with him (and the rest of the people that worked on that project) to continue developing that further. IF he refuses to sign anything, refuse to work on the project.

 

If you have the original project files and he only has the original rendered video, you are basically the copyright owner of that video and if you didn't sign anything and basically had only a verbal agreement, you could sue him and in theory prevent him from using your work for any contests.

You can say you didn't give him permission to use the video or you only gave him a on time "license" to use that video for one contest.

 

Does he have any proof he made the video and not you or someone else in your group of developers etc?

 

Up to you to determine if the money for a lawyer would be worth it.