[Catalyst] Detecting if a user aborted a (long) download

[Thomas Klausner]

Hi!

On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 02:56:51PM -0500, Jay K wrote:
 
> Check out the code associated with the 2006 advent calendar entry
> entitled 'streaming mp3s with Catalyst'
>
> http://www.catalystframework.org/calendar/2006/15

Thanks, I'll take a look at this.

> As an aside - I don't know what you are doing with this - but in
> terms of charging based on whether the file was downloaded in it's
> entirety - with mp3s you can drop off the end usually without it
> affecting playback much, if at all.
> 
> In other words - expect that people will figure out the billing
> method and stop the download just a few bytes shy of the end of the
> file to avoid paying.  (I've seen automated bookmarklet things that
> do just that)  Just something to be aware of.

Hm, that's an interesting point.

Thankfully I don't have to care about all the business / legal things, 
but I'll inform those who do about this issue.

On the other hand (and as some added background info), the site in 
question isn't really an MP3-Dealer, but a public radio broadcaster 
(oe1.orf.at (which currently doesn't run on Catalyst, but will be soon))
which offers downloads of selected shows. Users pay something like 30 
Euros to get 360 downloads, so if they cheat a bit, it won't kill the 
business plan. But still, if somebody only does nearly-finished 
downloads, they might want to investigate / send an unfriendly letter 
/etc.

Thanks for the feedback...

-- 
#!/usr/bin/perl                               http://domm.zsi.at
for(ref bless{},just'another'perl'hacker){s-:+-$"-g&&print$_.$/}