Protected course video: expiring links, watermark and device limit

Anyone selling a paid course has one very specific fear: the buyer pays once, the link goes around a group chat and twenty people watch without buying. No technique stops that completely, but several layers together make it awkward and traceable. This article explains what LearnSuite does with the video of a paid course, step by step, and where it falls short.

If you want the wider picture (DRM, watermarks, screen recording), start with how to protect your course videos without going paranoid. Here we only cover what our platform does.

What happens when a learner presses play

1. The page decides whether they have access. If the lesson is paid and the learner has not bought it, the video never receives an address: there is nothing to copy.
2. The player asks for permission. It sends a signed token and an identifier for the device. The server checks the licence, the device, and whether another playback is already running.
3. It receives a signed link. This is a temporary address pointing to the file. It expires: the window depends on the video length (longer for longer videos, with a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 6 hours). When the learner jumps ahead, the player uses the same signature.
4. The watermark is overlaid, if the course has it turned on.
5. The player sends heartbeats while playing and signals when it closes, so the system knows which session is still alive.

Subtitles travel signed just like the video, so they cannot be requested without a licence either.

The layers, one by one

Watermark with name and email

The text is "Name · email" of the learner (the name is trimmed to 40 characters). You switch it on or off course by course from the dashboard. It works as a deterrent: whoever records the screen and shares the file leaves their identity stuck to the video.

Maximum of three devices per licence

Each licence accepts three devices. The fourth gets a clear refusal. Learners manage their own list on a dedicated page and can revoke a phone they no longer use, without writing to you. This is the layer that slows down the account lent to a family or a group.

One simultaneous playback

If a licence is already playing (with a heartbeat under 90 seconds old), a second playback is refused. If the learner reloads the same tab, it simply takes over. Two people watching at once on the same account, no.

Territorial rules

These rules rely on zones, which belong to the higher plans:

• If the same access shows up in two different countries within two hours, the licence is suspended (impossible travel).
• If the connection comes from outside the licence zone, an extra verification is requested.
• A connection that looks like a VPN or proxy is recorded as a reason.
• For people who really travel there is a travel pass: with a phone verified by SMS, the learner gets up to 14 days per calendar year in the country they are in. It has nothing to do with study streaks: it is a territorial access permit.

Who it makes sense for

• Instructors with a mid-priced or premium course, where a shared account really hurts.
• Anyone selling in countries with different prices who does not want someone buying in the cheapest and watching from the most expensive. See how it combines in regional pricing and checkout.
• Academies that already have their own site and want the video to stay inside it: an academy with your own brand and domain.

It also ties into a wider problem: if you are building your academy without a technical team, this protection comes ready instead of being something you configure (more in launching your academy without a tech team).

What it does NOT do

Be honest with yourself using this list:

• The watermark is not forensic and is not burned into the video. It is overlaid in the player. A clever crop or a screen recording could hide it.
• It does not prevent screen recording. Nobody can without special hardware. It deters, it does not block.
• It does not protect free content. Free lessons and free courses are served with a signed link, but with no watermark or device limit. That is deliberate: they are your shop window (see the free lesson).
• It does not protect embedded third-party videos. If a lesson uses an embedded YouTube video, that video follows YouTube's rules.
• It is not film-studio DRM. It does not encrypt per device with player licences.
• Country detection is not perfect. It depends on an IP geolocation service; if that is unavailable the system runs in a reduced mode. A well-made VPN can go unnoticed.

Which plan includes it

Protected video courses, the signed link, the watermark and the device limit are on every LearnSuite plan. Zones and identity verification belong to Institution and Enterprise. The pricing page has the detail and the free trial.

When it is not the best option

If you sell very little and your main worry is somebody copying a PDF, this is more than you need. And if your course is a series of YouTube videos with no learner account, there is no licence to protect. If instead you charge a price that justifies protecting your work and you want to know who watches what, these layers work without you assembling anything.

The honest summary: there is no unbreakable video, but there is a video whose misuse leaves a trace, that does not pass easily between strangers, and that does not make you play sysadmin. That is the realistic meaning of "protected".

To see how it fits with the rest of the academy, start from the blog overview.