I have a limited use e-book at www.lottomasta.com. In theory, it opens
twice and then will never open again. You cannot print it or copy
text. Because there is so much rubbish out there, it is the complete
version of "1,000 Weeks of Lotto - What Worked, What Didn't"  - I
wanted customers to see the quality, browse the book twice, and then
hopefully buy.

My first attempt was time limited - which I discovered was a disaster.
Reset my computers date and it opened again!

Am I being equally naive with a "two openings only" approach?  

Sales are slow and I am wondering if it is because there is an easy
way to re-open the expired copy that I don't know about.

Or is it safe?

Many thanks,

Terry (LottoMasta)

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Clarification of Question by lottomasta-ga on 14 Apr 2004 17:01 PDT

Obviously there are ways round this. A couple of simple examples would
be great. Thanks, Terry

Sorry to have to be the one who has to break the news to you, Terry,
but (in my opinion) most folk would be dubious about any technique for
winning a Lottery which, by definition, is purely a matter of chance.

And, surely, if such a technique really worked:

Why would you wish to share it?

And why would you want to sell e-books?

I suggest that you concentrate all your efforts on winning Lotteries
and leave the problem of marketing e-books to others.

PB

they do not work.  there are plenty of ways to get around a 'two
openings only' thing built in to an ebook.

well you could try adding something into the windows registry each
time it's opened. And if the user un-installs, the entry stays. most
peeps steer well clear of the registry. So that would probably work
fairly well. Though it's still get aroundable.

There really is no way to protect an ebook from being cracked and
distributed on the internet. But you can check this out
http://www.fileopen.com/ This is the best software on the market for
protecting .pdf files from unauthorized viewing. It is very pricy but
for the most part it will ensure that no one can share the files with
each other. It still will not guarantee 100% unauthorized viewing of
files but John Q. Public wont be able to hack the ebooks because of
this plugin/software.

As far as examples of getting around the 2 openings, Anyone with a
little bit of computer knowledge and some time will get around that 2
openings restriction.  Its just a matter of playing with your registry
settings amongst other thing.

You should limit sample viewing off the book on your website to the
first chapter and offer the full download of the ebook when the item
is purchased. If you purchase the software from fileopen and use it
with your ebook i guarantee 99% of the people who get the book from
your site will not be able to 'play' with the ebook once they download
it.

I'm also marketing an e-book on the net.  What I have done is to link
the readers to the Contents Page, and then have the first two chapter
headings linked to separate pages where they can read them.  I offered
this as a sample and if they like these, they may be encouraged to buy
the whole book.  You can see what I have done at
http://uk.geocities.com/oscarr90/