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(@mikeschinkel: Before edit title was: is there a plugin/set of plugins for providing subscription to digital assets on an individual or large scale?)

I'm trying to set up a site where a substantial amount of PDFs will be sold both individually and a subscription will be sold to a library - so anyone from that library can visit the site without a paywall (so, based on IP). does anything exist for wordpress like this? bonus points if its free/open-source and not paid...

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There are solutions for the first part (selling PDFs individually) ... I use a great one to sell eBooks on my website. As for a IP-based library subscription, I don't know of any ... but I think it would be a fantastic idea! –  EAMann Aug 26 '10 at 15:59
EAMann what do you use? –  user426 Aug 26 '10 at 16:00
I use WP eCommerce (wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce). It integrates directly with merchant services like PayPal and allows you to sell both physical products and downloadable products. When you purchase a download, you're given a unique link to download it from. It works rather well, actually. Here's an example from my site: jumping-duck.com/store/books/… –  EAMann Aug 26 '10 at 16:31

2 Answers 2

For digital assets subscriptions most people are using Membership Plugins. There are free membership plugins and commercial membership plugins, and the ones IMO with the most traction (i.e. users and support) seem to be the commercial plugins.

List of Membership and Content Protection Plugins

Here are a list of membership plugins that I've found from my past research. Not all provide subscriptions to digital assets but most do. I've included the full list for others who might be interested in the full list of membership plugins. (I've created my answer as a community wiki if anyone wants to help segment the ones that provide digital asset protection and download from those that do not.):

In alphabetic order:

I know that's not many options, but maybe it's enough? ;)

Membership Plugin Articles

And here are a few articles you might find helpful:

Hope it helps.

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wow mike that's a great list! but do any of those specifically grant or limit access to entire domain ranges - so if i'm in a library i can access the journal for free, but i can't outside the library? –  user426 Aug 27 '10 at 19:51
Like I said, I don't have specific experience with them but I wanted to give you a starting point. I also make it a community wiki so others could update it if need be. –  MikeSchinkel Aug 27 '10 at 23:44

MemberWing allows to build digital online stores with full link sharing protection. Meaning if someone purchased digital product and sent download link to his buddies - they won't be able to access product unless they are premium logged on members as well. No so with other softwares - usually once download link is discovered - the whole world can download it for free. Additionally I can easily modify MemberWing to allow premium access only from specified group of IP addresses. Let me know if you are interested: http://www.memberwing.com/contact


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