Question

How do I protect an mp3 file?

Asked by: brucegust

I'm selling mp3 files as downloads. After the user has made their purchase, they login to the "Admin" page where all of their purchases are listed. The page that lists the resources / corresponding links is protected, but the mp3 itself is not.

Is there a way that I can protect the mp3 file itself. Could I put it in a directory where a Session ID would be necessary in order to access the directory itself. I'm just shooting in the dark, here, but I want to believe that there's some simple yet brilliant tactic I can employ that would limit the download of said file to only those who cleared a login interface or something along those lines.

Ideas?

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Asked On: 2008-01-02 at 17:43:07ID23054694
Tags: ASP
,; Internet Explorer
Topic: Active Server Pages (ASP)
Participating Experts: 2
Points: 500
Comments: 14

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Answers

by: SquareHeadPosted on 2008-01-02 at 21:51:17ID: 20570912

One way would be to create an ASP page that you have behind authentication, then, on that page, use the ADODB stream object to read/write the binary. Here's an example that should get you started...

<%
  
   Dim strMP3Filename
   Dim oStream, cAction
   
   cAction = "ShowIt"
 
  'First thing to do is decide if we're going to allow access to the file.
  
'  during testing, we'll set the auth to true...
	Session("bolUnlimAuth") = True
 
   If Session("bolUnlimAuth") = False Then
 	'If they're not allowed to get the file, let them know.
 	Response.Write "<HTML><BODY><H2>Error!</H2>You are not allowed to access this file.</BODY></HTML>"
 	Response.End
   End If
  
  'This is a DISK path, not a URL
  strMP3Filename = "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mp3\mymp3.mp3"
 
 
  'The ADODB.Stream object is used to read the file
  Set oStream = server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
  oStream.Type = 1 'adtypeBinary
  oStream.Open
  oStream.LoadFromFile(strMP3Filename)
  
Response.AddHeader "Content-Length", oStream.Size
Response.AddHeader "Expires", "0"
Response.AddHeader "Cache-Control", "must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"
Response.AddHeader "Pragma", "public"
  
  'ContentType header lets the browser know what kind of file this is
 Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"
  
  'The content-disposition header controls how the file will be handled in the browser.
  'Using the first line below will cause the browser to display a "file download" dialog, 
  'asking the user whether to open or save the file, whereas using the second line will automatically
  'display the PDF in the browser, without showing the dialog:
 
  Select Case cAction
  Case "AttachIt"
     Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=mymp3.mp3"
  Case "ShowIt"
     Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=mymp3.mp3"
  End Select 
 
  Response.BinaryWrite oStream.Read
 
  oStream.Close
  Set oStream = nothing
 %>

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by: SquareHeadPosted on 2008-01-02 at 21:53:45ID: 20570920

In my example above, you'd be able to hide the path to the MP3s, and give them whatever name you want... Hope that helps.

by: R_HarrisonPosted on 2008-01-04 at 06:23:47ID: 20582305

As an alternative you could place the MP3 file into a database as a binary object - this way you would not have the MP3 file on the server...

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-01-23 at 15:32:32ID: 20729107

R_Harrison, your solution intrigues me. Thing is, when I look at "DataType" in the design view of my table, I don't see binary type. That probably shows my ignorance more than anything else, but could you please explain the practical application of your answer?

by: R_HarrisonPosted on 2008-01-24 at 01:23:29ID: 20731746

If you are using access the data type is called "OLE Object".

The practical application is you can create a web page to upload the MP3 file into the database - you can even automatically determine the file name and size from the upload and add this information into the database - there are lots of examples of doing this on EE but I can provide code snippets if required.

Once the file is in the database you can show a list of files to vistors by recalling the file names from the database and they can "download" the files. The download page simply recalls the binary data back from the database and sends it to the browser and using the Response.AddHeader command you can tell the browser it is an MP3 file and provide a suggested name for the file download.

As the download page is in ASP and simply calls a record from the database you can of course add additional code to ensure the user is entitled to access the file from the database and as this code is on the same page it is impossible to bypass.

If you need any code snippets to get you started then let me know. You will also an upload component on your server there are several to choose from but I use ABCUpload from http://www.websupergoo.com/ - which is free if you provide a link back to their site.

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-02-08 at 09:00:24ID: 20851955

R_Harrison

OK, I'm tracking with you in that I recently had to build an upload interface for a client, but I'm still clueless as far as how the "binary" dynamic fits in. Once the file is uploaded to the server with the way I'm doing it now, the actual file is sitting in a directory and the only way that I can reference it is with a URL.

Can you show me an example of how this works? Mind you've I've got the interface to upload a file to the server, but I don't know how else you would download that file without the URL.

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-02-08 at 11:27:39ID: 20853175

OK, I'm almost there.

I'm using this code and it's working perfectly except for the fact that on a Mac, it doesn't give me a download dialogue, rather it simply opens up the file and begins playing it. How do I ensure that I get the download infrastructure happening on a Mac operating system using the below code...

<%

Dim strMP3Filename
Dim oStream, cAction

cAction = "ShowIt"

'First thing to do is decide if we're going to allow access to the file.

' during testing, we'll set the auth to true...
      Session("bolUnlimAuth") = True

If Session("bolUnlimAuth") = False Then
     'If they're not allowed to get the file, let them know.
     Response.Write "<HTML><BODY><H2>Error!</H2>You are not allowed to access this file.</BODY></HTML>"
     Response.End
End If

'This is a DISK path, not a URL
strMP3Filename = "D:\inetpub\bigshinyplanet\Samples\Grey.mp3"

'The ADODB.Stream object is used to read the file
Set oStream = server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
oStream.Type = 1 'adtypeBinary
oStream.Open
oStream.LoadFromFile(strMP3Filename)

Response.AddHeader "Content-Length", oStream.Size
Response.AddHeader "Expires", "0"
Response.AddHeader "Cache-Control", "must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"
Response.AddHeader "Pragma", "public"

'ContentType header lets the browser know what kind of file this is
Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"

'The content-disposition header controls how the file will be handled in the browser.
'Using the first line below will cause the browser to display a "file download" dialog,
'asking the user whether to open or save the file, whereas using the second line will automatically
'display the PDF in the browser, without showing the dialog:

Select Case cAction
Case "AttachIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=mymp3.mp3"
Case "ShowIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=mymp3.mp3"
End Select

Response.BinaryWrite oStream.Read

oStream.Close
Set oStream = nothing
%>

by: SquareHeadPosted on 2008-02-08 at 12:53:53ID: 20854015

Try changing this:

cAction = "ShowIt"

to this:

cAction = "AttachIt"

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-02-08 at 13:38:32ID: 20854424

When I do that, instead of it downloading the mp3 file, it downloads the "Download.asp" page. That's what happens on the PC side. On the MAC side, there's no change, it just starts playing the MP3 file.

What do you think?

by: R_HarrisonPosted on 2008-02-11 at 06:30:22ID: 20866459

Try moving:
Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"

into the ShowIt case, if the user is downloading the file the browser does not need to know the file type as it is a binary stream and you are suggesting a file name with:

Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=mymp3.mp3"

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-02-11 at 08:29:54ID: 20867636

R_Harrison...

Is this what you were thinking...

Select Case cAction
Case "AttachIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=mymp3.mp3"
Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"
Case "AttachIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=mymp3.mp3"
Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"
End Select

I tried that and I'm still getting the same result. PC displays it as a download, but it's now downloading the mp3 file, rather it's downloading the "Download.asp" page, Mac opens up a QuickTime player and begins playing the file. What am I missing?

by: R_HarrisonPosted on 2008-02-12 at 05:53:32ID: 20874664

No, this is what I was thinking....

Select Case cAction
Case "AttachIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=mymp3.mp3"
Case "ShowIt"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=mymp3.mp3"
Response.ContentType="audio/mpeg3"
End Select

by: SquareHeadPosted on 2008-02-12 at 07:05:48ID: 20875336

@brucegust -- thx for the points & grade, but consider splitting points and assigning to R_Harrison for his help on this issue. And I neglected to mention that I have not tested this solution on a Mac.

by: brucegustPosted on 2008-02-12 at 10:22:23ID: 20877262

I'm looking for a link or something that would allow me to re-assign points, but I'm not finding anything.

I'll be happy to default to Squarehead's suggestion that I split the points between him and R_Harrison.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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How do I protect an mp3 file?

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ASP

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Active Server Pages (ASP)

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