The internet was originally designed to be a place where people from all over the world could meet, and openly exchange information with each other. Today the term ?openly exchanging information? has grown to piracy and abusing the power of the internet. With so many publishing houses allowing direct downloads of content it has become very easy for people to simply download an ebook and distribute it freely over the internet. In fact the fear of piracy and illegal copying of content was the reason why many publishing houses were reluctant to offer ebooks online. Not just ebooks but even music has been subjected to the same piracy and rampant illegal copying.

If you are looking to protect your ebooks, music or programming scripts then there are a few options available to you online. In case of ebooks and music, one of the most popular methods of protecting content online is called DRM. Digital rights management is a popular and almost fool proof way of protecting ebooks and music from piracy. Even if a person manages to make copies of your music and ebooks, if the files are protected by DRM they are actually locked on to the system. So no matter how hard a person tries he can create a thousand copies of the files, but the files will not be accessible the moment anyone tries to access them on another computer.

DRM is one of the leading ways to protect media online. However another popular means of protecting media is patenting it. Today almost all major publishing houses patent their content and the moment a person is found in possession of a copy that is pirated they are liable for legal action. The reason why patenting media is better than using DRM is more evident in the case of online scripts. Many sites have customized scripts; by patenting scripts you can ensure that no other site can ever use the script without your prior consent. Since scripts can actually be copied and modified to be different there is no way to ensure that a script is DRM protected. In fact in the case of scripts there is no other option but to either protect the script by using server side programming, or patenting the script so that no one can copy it.

Today applying for a patent is very simple, if you are a US based firm all you need to do is apply for a provisional patent online (sites and products have a ?patent pending? symbol during a provisional patent). Once your provisional patent has been accepted within 12 months you will be granted a complete patent. The best part is during a provisional patent the details of the patent are protected so no one can really know the complete nature of the patent. Once a complete patent is granted, only then are the relevant details of the patent available to everyone.

If you are looking to protect your ebooks, music and scripts then applying for a patent online is the simplest and most effective way of protecting your assets.