Sharing of piracy-sensitive movie files

We have been sending trailers, teasers, test-DCPs, DVD-masters, dailies, and all other kinds of copyrighted materials – that are very interesting to pirates and other evil geniuses – through services such as WeTransfer, DropBox, Rapidshare,  Sharefile and others. Without worrying about who else might eventually gets included in the sharing.

After some uncomfortable encounters with DropBox, we recently had some problems with sharing files through WeTransfer, when links were shared by the addressee with a third party, without consent.

I know, it’s not the WeTransfer service that is to blame, but the “circle of trust” which is constantly broken by seemingly trustworthy contacts.

We have found a solution for this, enhancing the security a bit, by using a new Dutch file-sharing service (and previous in-house development of Marvels Media) that let you share files up to 2gb per day and forward the link to the files via e-mail and (on mobiles) WhatsApp. This service differs from the other services, because they offer a “destroy after first download” function. Combined with password protection, this provides us with a long sought for  “this message will auto-destruct after reading” functionality. WeTransfer and Mega only provide a password protection function, and then for paid subscribers only. Furthermore, files are stored by their secured (https) servers in an encrypted state.

The URL is https://bestandje.nl and the only drawback is that the site is in Dutch (EN language coming up) – but it’s all pretty self-explanatory. You’ll get the general idea, because the interface resembles WeTransfer and other services alike.
The only problem might be the e-mail that is received by the addressee – which is in Dutch too. The easy work-around is choosing “Link” instead of “Mail” in the settings (cog-wheel symbol) and mail the link yourself.

But… if you share files 1:1 with people you know and expect a file, this service is absolutely top for one-time sharing of sensitive files. There is an iOS and Android app, and i’m almost confident that there will be an English version soon…

Another interesting fact (if you’re on mobile or install their app) is the option to send links through WhatsApp, that lets you share and send massive amounts of pictures and movies with a few clicks. They also have found a ingenious way to launch their app directly from their Facebook page (https://facebook.com/bestandje).

Cheers!

Martin.