Suggestions for locking web content

@trgrayAug 05.2008

I have a customer who wants their web content (pictures and copy) locked so no one can “steal” it. I’ve explained to them that if anyone wants it badly enough, they can simply do a screen capture and get what they want that way, nonetheless they want the site locked or encrypted to prevent theft.

Anyone have suggestions for doing this? I’ve searched the web and found different solutions but are there any recommendations/user experiences here?

Thanks.

to post a comment

Full-stack Developer

11 Comments(s) _↴

@ryanbutlerAug 05.2008 — #It's impossible. You can make an admin site and protect pages that way, but anyone that has access to that, can steal them. The only thing you could do in either case is to add a copyright seal on the images. Other than that, if it's on the web, or admin site, the pictures are accessible to anyone.

@trgrayauthorAug 05.2008 — #But isn't there a way to make it difficult, if not impossible, to right-click an image and copy it? Or to make it difficult or impossible to cut and paste the copy?

@Declan1991Aug 05.2008 — #You can stop the most inexperienced of users from coping an image directly by placing a blank transparent gif over them, but you are wasting your time. [url=http://www.htmlite.com/faq010.php]Quick guide here[/url].

It should impress your customers though.

The [b]only[/b] reasonably secure way to have images on the internet is to have them watermarked.

@andy_bAug 05.2008 — #trgay,

To disable the right click in the entire web page enter this code in your body tag, like this

<body oncontextmenu="return false">

Now i have read that you can also disable copy/paste too as well as the print screen button but as of now had little success. I am very interested in knowing how to do this.

Now i do know that this attempt to protect images/content may seem futile to many of you, but many of the people coming to my site are not like you guys. They have limited computer knowledge and by disabling right click, print screen and copy and paste may actually deter them.

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

@LeeUAug 05.2008 — #You're andy_b. But it's like using JavaScript for password protection. It's only good unless someone understand, which doesn't take much understanding. As long as the customer knows that what you do doesn't guarantee anything, there are, as mentioned above a few things to do. The motto to remember is "what is presented on the Web, stays on the Web."

@andy_bAug 05.2008 — #i understand that you can steal just about anything you want on the web and there isnt a great deal you can do about it! After all the web is about offering information right? so i get it. I am pretty knowledgeable about grabbing content after all its how i learned a lot of the code i now know.

And of course why put stuff on the web if you dont want it stolen? i get it. i also know i can put a great big watermark across every image i have if i care that much!

But i dont care that much.

I care just enough to be a pest to the very limited users! I know my client base pretty well and i know these few small "blocks" will be enough to deter.

So after saying all that, i would like to know if anyone knows how to disable the print screen key and disable copy and paste. I have read of a small script using setInterval to disable copy/paste, but it disables copy/paste for the entire OS until the browser is closed. Is there another option?

thanks

@ryanbutlerAug 06.2008 — #I'd just look for a JavaScript solution that disables right clicking and copy/pasting of a web page.

@andy_bAug 06.2008 — #so i'm interested in preventing copy and paste in my blog.

use this snippet of code i found.

replae your <div class="post"> tag

with

<div class="post" onmousedown="return false" onselectstart="return false">

@toicontienAug 08.2008 — #Try this out on your client then.

Take Declan1991's advice and watermark your images with a small, semi transparent logo and a web address to your site. Now if people copy your images and post it to their web site, it's free advertising for your site.

Clients love getting something for free ?

If they persist, just tell them what they want isn't technically possible. The people they will actually prevent from copying their images are just joe-nobody's who should be paying customers, and instead might be put off by whatever solution you use. The people who genuinely want to rip your client off and make or take money away from your client will know how to get around it.

It's like putting a glass door on a bank vault, and locking it and throwing away the key. Normal people aren't going to break the glass to get at their money and instead will use another bank. Robbers on the other hand, will walk right up with a crowbar in hand and smash the door to bits, steal all your money, and you get to walk around with your pants down.

Moral of the story?

Never lock the bank vault. Never store anything of true value in there, or don't care if it's stolen because more than likely you'll never see a reduction in revenue. Secondly, if you want to restrict access, simply restrict the people who can see your site. Build a bank vault, complete with a steal door, and only give copies of the key to people who register. That way, when something illegal happens, you know who to go after.

Sounds like they need user registration, not anti copy scripts.

@felgallAug 09.2008 — #Just remember that in order for someone to see an image on a web page their browser must have already downloaded a copy of that image to their computer. Browsers only display files that are stored locally (with a few exceptions for that require plugins in the browser for them to run at all).

Any protection you apply to the image has to take into account the fact that before someone sees the image they already have a copy of it. The only way you can apply any protection to the images is therefore within the images themselves by reducing the resolution of the image and applying visual and digital watermarks into the image. That way if someone steals the image any use of the image will not only tell people that the image was stolen but can also tell them where it was stolen from.

With the bank vault analogy the equivalent to any protection you try to build into the web page through no right click scripts, transparent overlays etc correspond to locking the bank vault door. Unfortunately the bank vault equivalent of a web page has the back wall missing though and so anyone who knows how to walk around the other side will not care if the door is locked.

@Eye_for_VideoAug 10.2008 — #There have already lots of good suggestions and advice but I think I’ll throw in something that takes a slightly different approach, particularly when it comes to

But isn't there a way to make it difficult, if not impossible, to right-click an image and copy it? Or to make it difficult or impossible to cut and paste the copy?[/QUOTE]

Since most or all of the suggestions so far are dealing with how to protect an picture displayed in an <img> tag, how about not using it? If you really feel the need, display the image as part of a Flash .swf file. That would increase the level of difficulty a fair amount as far as right click stuff goes. The .swf itself could still be stolen but it’s certainly not a printer friendly format and you can make it even more difficult for someone to reuse the stolen version.

Inside the .swf file you could create an invisible button with a onRollOver event that would display a caption which would look similar to an <img ….alt= “Property of MySite.com”>. Less obtrusive than a watermark to the casual viewer (since it only displays on roll over) but very annoying to someone stealing the image. You may even want to take it a step farther and make that invisible button clickable. Use a little ActionScript to verify the current site, if not MySite.com then the button action kicks in, onRelease getURL(“MySite.com, _parent”), closing out the browser on their site and redirecting to yours. A little extra work on your part and a real pain in the rear for them.

If you had some priceless text content that you didn’t want easily copied, just use the same technique, stick it in a .swf.

Keep on Truckin’

Eye for Video

www.cidigitalmedia.com