How to set a permission for a folder or category?

I am looking to have a permission set on products or a category to restrict access to the product unless a user has the permission for the product or category.

Sort of a Premium Member permission.

This does not exist at this time, however you could custom design the code in some manner to link products to the customer to know who can see what ...

It would be a challenging project ...

Is this going to be a future feature?
My client has his mind set that he needs a premium member level for all of his services. He wants to get an ebook up tomorrow that only "premium members" can buy, is their any simple way to provide some sort of lock down for it?
I don't want to code like crazy, then have it break or duped in some future update.
If their was a stable phpbb3 bridge, I would just make something to use a group permission from phpbb3 to allow access to premium products.

I do not want to make a second zen cart for premium members, nor do I want the feature outside of zen cart. It would defeat the purpose of using zen cart at all.

Any advice is much appreciated. :D
Thanks.

One idea, I found a mod here on the site.... Embed Products onto 3rd Party Site.......
Is their any way to "hide" a product.
For example, if I put the external link in phpbb3 in a store category. people with proper permissions could click the link. while in zen cart, it hides but does not lock the product, so there would be no way for a customer to find the product unless they have clicked the link or made a lucky guess.....
How about that?
And how would I "hide" the product?
Thanks!

I found a possible solution with the mod hideCategories.
I will post my results when I try it out,
Thanks!