Pay-Per View Image licensing

[masten]

Hi, Im the owner/manager of a business that produces Visual Content.

I am looking for a way to produce a pay-per-view image licensing system.

Here's how it will work:

- I will host all images on my server.

- The client will then place a button on their web-site that will link to the appropriate images on my server.

Here's what I need to make happen

- Whenever somebody views one of these images, the client (not the viewer) will pay/owe me a predetermined amount.

Does anybody know how this' done and/or can point me in the direction of somebody who can do it. I know it can be as Ive seen another site do it.

Many thanks

Masten

[bazz]

Yup, it can be done using a server side language such as perl.

Are you aware that some unscrupulous persons may still copy your photos to their server and display them for free, from there?

You could ask your question in the perl forum for a better reply.

bazz

[bpaulsen2000]

Hi,

You're also going to need a high quality server-side automatic image resizer.

:)

[NancyJ]

Hi,

You're also going to need a high quality server-side automatic image resizer.

:)
Why? He never said anything about resizing the images, if he were to go for a gallery style format then image resizing may be something he would want to consider but it is by no means a requirement. As for 'high quality', you make resizing images seem like a major endeavor, its not complicated or difficult in any way, with the right tools.
All thats involved is:
Detect image type
Determine size ratio
Create new thumbnail image of same ratio

But back on topic, what you're asking is really very simple.

You need a database table of all the images, their client reference number and the number of views.
You would also need a table of client details and payment amounts etc but thats irrelevant to the core functionality.

You give the client a url eg. http://mysite.com/view/clientref/
that points to a page that loads up either the image or a gallery home page for the client (depending whether you want clients to have a gallery or a single image)
On the page that loads the image you simply increment the views in the database and reset the figure at each billing cycle.
You could probably find a decent image gallery script on hotscripts or similar and modify it a little to (or you may not need modification at all, if the script already includes page views)

[masten]

ok,

many thanks for the input.

forgot to mention ('duhhh') that the images aren't static, they're 360 degree photographs (virtual tours essentially) displayed using a java applet. Does that make any difference?

[NancyJ]

ok,

many thanks for the input.

forgot to mention ('duhhh') that the images aren't static, they're 360 degree photographs (virtual tours essentially) displayed using a java applet. Does that make any difference?
Not at all, as long as the applet is in webpage, there is no problem.

[masten]

Nancy

Just wanted to say many thanks for your input. Good to know its alot easier than I thought. Enables me to make some rough plans. Im not ready to implement anything yet, but when I do I hope I can get some more feedback from you. That would be great.

all the best

Masten