In addition to letting consumers download multimedia files, you can also stream multimedia files to consumers. Streaming is a good choice when you want to make your content available, but you don t want to give copies of it to consumers. Streaming also forces consumers back to your Web site to play your multimedia files, which is advantageous when you want to make sure that consumers see branding, advertisements, and other information on your site. However, streaming multimedia files rather than providing them for download does not necessarily ensure that the files are secure. Several programs are currently available that allow a consumer to capture an audio or video stream and save it to a file on their computer.
Consumers can then play the resulting multimedia file at any time and share it with other people.
The resulting packaged files retain the quality of the original version, are resilient to packet loss, and require a license for playback. This license specifies what actions can be performed by the consumer, such as the number of times a consumer can play the packaged multimedia files. That is, the consumer must have a license to play the saved stream. If consumers share a saved stream with others, they will not be able to play the file without first obtaining a license because it is required to play a packaged file. You can provide a URL in the packaged file so that when a consumer tries to play a local copy of it and does not have a license, the consumer is redirected to a Web site from which they can obtain a license.