Playback and security

Every time someone presses play, Bitty Course checks on the server whether that person may watch the lesson, and only then hands their browser short-lived access to the video. This page explains that check, what it protects, and what it can't.

Who can watch a lesson

Before any video starts, Bitty Course checks, on the server:

• Your team (workspace owners and editors) can watch every lesson, including in unpublished courses, in Preview as student, and when previewing a new video version.
• Anyone can watch a lesson marked Free preview, once the course is published.
• Enrolled students can watch every lesson of a published course while their enrollment is active.
• Everyone else sees the lesson's locked page instead of the video, which says the lesson is part of the course.

Students can only watch a lesson's live video. The one exception is following a timestamp comment to an earlier version that's still kept; that requires being able to read the course's comments.

To give or remove access, see Students and Pricing and access.

Short-lived playback access

When the check passes, the browser gets playback access that expires after 5 minutes. The player renews it automatically while someone is watching, and every renewal repeats the full check.

What this means in practice:

• Revoking a student (or a refund that ends their enrollment) stops new playback straight away. A video already playing in their browser can keep working for at most 5 minutes, until its current access expires.
• Copied video links stop working. A playback link copied out of the browser stops working within 5 minutes.
• Captions are served the same way: through short-lived links issued only after the same check. See Captions and translations.

Attachments and comments follow the same rules

• Lesson attachments are checked on every download. There are no shareable download links: a copied link is useless to someone who can't watch the lesson, and stops working when access is revoked. Files are always downloaded, never opened in the browser.
• Comments are for enrolled students and your team. A free preview lesson does not open its comments to the public. See Comments.

Embeds don't grant access

You can show a lesson's player on your own website.

1. Open the course, go to its Details tab, and find Discussion, search and embedding.
2. Under Sites allowed to embed lessons, enter each website's domain, one per line (for example www.example.com). Up to 10 domains.
3. Click Save course.
4. On your website, embed the lesson's link with /embed added to the end, for example in an iframe. The lesson link is shown at the top of the lesson editor.

The allowed-sites list only controls which websites may show the player in a frame. It never grants access: the embedded player runs the same check as the course site. Visitors who can't watch the lesson see "This lesson is for enrolled students." with an Open the course button.

Browsers usually don't share a student's Bitty Course sign-in with a player embedded on a different website, so on another site embeds work most reliably for free preview lessons.

Custom domains don't grant access

Connecting a custom domain changes your course site's address. It doesn't change who can watch. The same check applies on every address your courses are served from.

Viewing hours

Each plan includes a number of viewing hours per calendar month (UTC):

Plan	Viewing hours per month
Free	50
Starter	250
Plus	500

• Viewing is counted from what the video service reports it delivered, not from student progress. Buffering, seeking and replays can make it higher than the time actually watched.
• You're warned at 80% and at 100%, on the Usage page and by email to owners.
• Above 100%, playback continues up to 110% of your allowance.
• Beyond 110%, playback for students pauses until the next month or until you change plan. Students see "Playback is temporarily paused for this course. The creator has been notified." You and your team can still play videos.
• There are never automatic overage charges.
• Days the video service hasn't reported yet are listed on the Usage page, not counted as zero.

See Plans and usage.

What this does not prevent

No video platform can stop someone who is allowed to watch from copying what they see. Bitty Course videos are not piracy-proof. In particular, Bitty Course does not prevent:

• Screen recording. Anyone who can watch a lesson can record their screen or point a camera at it.
• Sharing a sign-in. A student who shares their email inbox, or signs in on someone else's device, shares their access.
• Redistributing downloads. Attachments a student has downloaded are ordinary files they can pass on.
• Brief reuse of a playback link. A link copied out of the browser keeps working for up to 5 minutes.

What the access check does guarantee is that people who were never entitled can't get playback from Bitty Course, and that access you revoke ends within minutes.

Good to know

• Lesson pages ask search engines not to index them.
• After a workspace cancels, enrolled students keep watching during the 30-day read-only grace period. Once the workspace is suspended, course sites show that they're unavailable.
• Rate limits apply to playback requests to stop abuse. Normal watching never reaches them.