External HD protection

[Tiger]

Hi everybody, I have several videos that I play with otsav, now my friends ask me to borrow them the drive and laptop to play it on their parties with my playlist. How can I protect the drive to be copied but still can play it with otsav (DJ ESP. 1.90). So whenever I am not there that nobody can copy the files or export them!??

I am great full for any advice, thank you in Advance.

[Dale James]

How can I protect the drive to be copied but still can play it with otsav (DJ ESP. 1.90). So whenever I am not there that nobody can copy the files or export them!??

I doubt this is possible. Surely, if the drive were protected OtsAV (or any program) wouldn't be able to access the files.

Hi everybody, I have several videos that I play with otsav, now my friends ask me to borrow them the drive and laptop to play it on their parties with my playlist.

I would never do this, for many reasons ... definitely not a good idea, for many reasons.

[Jigger]

I agree  don't do it,your friends want something for nothing don't go there, just imagine what can happen to your system and files.

[Dub2Dat]

Hey Tiger,

I got many tools in the tool shed.  Some tools I will loan.  Some tools will not be loaded.  If you system is something you cannot afford to loose, or cannot afford to have returned all messed up then its not worth it.

Tell your friends you cannot afford the risk.  Then make them a counter offer.  Tell them you can play the gig for XXX dollars.

[Dj Buik]

Never tried it, but maybe you can try it with Truecrypt.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/

Test it with a test folder with Ots files.
Bare in mind that encryption and decryption take CPU cycles.

[DJMartin]

Even if your disk is pretected with a full disk encription software, it will be possible to copy data from. How come?

During boot of your system you must enter a passcode/password to continue booting, same applies to external disks. If you lend your system to others, you need to tell them the passwords. Once enabled, the files are accessible normally and can be copied to a USB stick or disk without problems. So no success.

Either you have friends you can trust that they do not ruin your setup, or -as mentioned before - propose them to hire you as DJ.

[Dj Buik]

Then i'm wondering how the 3rd party Jukebox guys do it. (Like: http://www.musicsystems.co.nz)

They have many systems out there with the customers, filled with hundreds or thousend of audio and video tracks.
They MUST have some protection from copying the files to an external USB drive.

I know you could disable the USB ports in the Motherboard BIOS.
Set an BIOS password. That brings you in the good direction.
But still the files are not encrypted, if someone take out the internal harddrive you still could copy the files.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Those systems most likely use proprietary software and music formats that are not playable in other software like itunes or Media player. Just like Ots actually, but also without an ability to export the music to a playable format.

[Darryl]

With group policy you can stop the user from getting to most of the operating system. If your hard disk and computer are in a secure chassis (consider the pub quiz machines that have a pc inside them as an example) the end user will not have access to the disk, only the software to play it.

[Tiger]

Dear All, thanks for the information, i spoke to a IT software developer, if the cost is not to high I ask him to write me a Otsav usable program. Thanks again

[Dj Buik]

... to borrow them the drive and laptop...

I thought Tiger talked about an external USB drive connected to a Laptop here.

Then a secure case or group policy won't work.  

[Darryl]

I thought Tiger talked about an external USB drive connected to a Laptop here.

Then a secure case or group policy won't work. 

This is true.  But it's the simplest way I could think of doing it securely were the person borrowing (or maybe renting) the gear wouldn't be able to steal the files.  I've thought about it a little more since then:

I believe there are hard disk encryption technologies out there that work at the device driver level in Windows - so the laptop could be leant to the user with a locked down account that has no access to the command prompt, Task Manager, Windows Explorer or autoplay and a password protected BIOS (to stop booting off CD or USB device to hack the Windows user account with a linux distro). If the hard drive security key is secured so that only the locked down user can get to it then if the hard disk was plugged into another computer the files would not be accessible and there would be no way of lifting the files via the Ots AV laptop.

This requires decent encryption software and a certain amount of skill to lock down the 'borrow' user account sufficiently.  I expect that this is a problem that solution providers have to overcome and I also expect that they've had to learn the Windows/PC security aspects or get a consultant in to do it.

[Darryl]

TrueCrypt from http://www.truecrypt.org could be used as described above - but don't expect the initial setup to be simple.  You need to use it in a way that the security key remains secure within the laptop - i.e. not accessible from the borrowed user's login.  However if the machine is out of your hands, an attacker could still remove the laptop's internal hard disk and plug it into another computer to gain access to the security key - so this method isn't perfect either.

An alternative is to put your music on the encrypted volume and use the other tactics I described to stop them plugging in another hard disk and copying over the files and you have to enter the security key manually at the start of the event.   However if the power was interrupted you would have to return to enter the security key again since giving the security key to the person you lend the laptop to defeats the security.

So we have gone full circle - to secure the security key you need to stop them gaining physical access to the laptop hard disk - so we are back to my original suggestion - put the whole thing in a secure casing so that they cannot get to it in the first place.  If you know someone who is good with a MIG welder I'm sure you could get something fabricated to stop them removing the hard disk or getting to the CMOS battery to kill the BIOS password.

[DJMartin]

Our main production case do have a notebook in a docking station and the NAS in it. For transport, both notebook and NAS will be removed, so the console loose most of its value and is better protected when handled by the road crew.

Our next generation DJ consoles should have a permanent built in pc and storage and connectors should not be accessible from outside or only when removing a physical lock. Cooling the case is an important thing, otherwise the board and disks overheat. I think you don't even have to weld the case, a standard flightcase based construction should be sufficent. Usually people do not unscrew cases, specially when you deliver the setup close before the venue start and pick it up right after the venue. Most likely you have to do a quick training session on how to use OTS anyway.
If you fear that people you hand out your gear might try to copy your data, then do not lend but rent them the equipment with the standard rental contract they have to sign. In there you can define that the system dare not be touched else than it is required to play the music. It could say something about checks you perform when the gear is returned to you and if something is not ok, what the additional costs will be to have it fixed. If you want to have an visual indicator if someone opened or removed panels, then there are seal stickers available. This won't prevent people from opening, but at least you see if they tried. Your contract may say something about this as well. E.g. when a seal is brocken, a supplemental fee for complete system check do apply. Make that price high enough so that it really hurts to pay.   

[Dr.J]

The easiest way would be to write a program in AHK that checks your OtsAV license, verifies it's the one on your laptop, then opens an encrypted drive using a hidden password (i.e. make the AHK script into an executable file). This would prevent anyone from loading/decrypting your files when the external hard drive is plugged into another computer.

For free file encryption I recommend TrueCrypt, and for pay encryption I recommend Dekart.

Let me know if you need any help with this.