My wife and I are starting our own photography business. We are going to offer CDs containing all the images we shoot to clients. We're giving them the CD for free, but it will have a copyright on it. I was wondering if there was a way I could put some form of copy protection on the CD, since the copyright would only protect me legally (and we all know how enforced that is). Is there a way I can do this?

Yes, but what's the point? Copy protection is a moving target. The ones who want to copy the CD, will. Generally speaking it's better to offer something that encourages people to purchase the disc rather than just copy it.

For example, each purchase gives the buyer a code to a special "customers-only" website, and the code can only be used once so it's not shared. Or something like that.

The honest people will pay you for your work, the dishonest ones won't. Often all you have to do is just send a notice that they are infringing on your copyright and "good" people will comply.

But to answer your question, yes there is copy protection software available, it just depends on how much you want to spend. Just do a search and you'll find several thousand sites and companies.

Hey crystallattice, congrats on your 1000th post! This one was it!!!

Yayyy! I'm a Senior Member now. And it's only taken two years. I'm on a roll.

lol congrats, but to continue this topic....

why not let the buyers buy the 2nd CD for only a few bucks, that way they would have a 2nd CD, but not paying much for it. this way it's easyer to order 2 CD's than copying.