Protecting web content from plagiarism

@Jennifer4evaAug 30.2005

~~[SIZE=1][COLOR=Navy]~~[FONT=Verdana]It just camed to my attention that web designers suffer from plagiarism, so i decided to open a discussion about ways to protect your site content (even if i’m not shure this is the right place)

So i have opened up the subject, now i’ll start the discussion; everybody is welcome to share their experience..

I remember reading an article in a magazine about protecting web content..

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one way was to set a meta tag to your html page wich would tell the browser that the page is expired so it would erase it from cache.. (i don’t remember exacly how it was done); of course, clicking File-Save As.. in IE would save a html file including all graphic elements on it..

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another way to prevent yout html code from beeing ‘borrowed’ is to write it in a complicated or encoded way(there are programs wich can do that).. this would not stop a person from reusing your code but it would make it harder for them.

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frames and iframes also make your code harder to be stollen.

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also a script wich disables right-click would be useful (of course it is easy to bypass if the visitor has a decent web browser wich can disable JavaScript)

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one way that i used to protect my images against right-clicking was to place an transparent gif image on top of the other images or animation (so whenever the user tries to right-click the image they actually click on the transparent gif, and when they save it, they just save a transparent gif, hahaha) this transparent-gif if placed on top of text it can prevent users from copying the content of your page using drag-and-drop and ctrl+c… of course this can be disabled by pressing ctr+a wich will select the text of the wole page.

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another way of protecting video/audio is to use a streming server(i have seen in winamp an option wich can save the audio stream from internet radio stations… so i guess there is some program or something wich can do the same with the video on the web) but if you have the posibility to use it(streaming server) it’s worth a try.

By combining these methods you can turn the life of a web-plagiator into a bad dream, so he might go to another site to steal(?)[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]

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Full-stack Developer

9 Comments(s) _↴

@NevermoreAug 30.2005 — #This topic was around when I last visited, looks like it won't give up...

1) There is no way to prevent people from stealing your web content without stopping them from accessing it.

2) Any attempt at stopping them will make your site less usable, and the plagiarists will just take things anyway

3) Almost all forms of protection or obfuscation make your site less favorable to search engines.

Don't mean to seem harsh, just summarising what you'll be told to save some time. For more information, see the [URL=http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26841]Javascript Sticky[/URL] - perhaps this is needed in general too?

@Jennifer4evaauthorAug 30.2005 — #Yes, this is the problem with open-source, but a serious designer would never steal anything from your site, these tips are just to make the job of those script kiddies harder..(and i agree in some cases they anoy visitors) after all you are right, it's just not worth it but you know, some ppl might like to try..

cheers

@Stephen_PhilbinAug 30.2005 — #Pretty much everything you posted there would be detrimental to a site and should be avoided wherever possible.

Not being nasty, just making sure that anyone that finds this thread knows.

@BrkwtzandrewAug 30.2005 — #I cant think of anything that could succesfully keep people away from precious images w/out making the site non userfriendly. The only thing you could do is block the image directory w/ htacces so scripts can still access it and make no right clicks. The easiest way for any one to steal ur images is print screen and that cant be blocked

-brkwtzandrew

@NevermoreAug 30.2005 — #Yes, this is the problem with open-source[/QUOTE]

HTML isn't open source, it merely has the source available. Open source implies that the code can be used by anyone and freely distributed or modified under any name; this makes the plagiarism impossible, since it would be permitted. Open source therefore doesn't suffer from a plagiarism problem; instead it thrives on it, seeing it as a way for people to make better free programs. Perhaps viewing HTML in this light is the only solution.

@Compguy_PeteAug 31.2005 — #This article link below doesn't answer the question at hand however it does look like there maybe progress in this area soon.... As you'll be able to submit your unpubished work and have it protected, at least legally.

I don't think you'll ever be able to stop someone from lifting your words off your page and not use them. I've had an entire site copied right down to the links that returned people to my site.

What torks me off is lazy people linking to my images and using them as there own. thats what burns me.

OH that link... BTW I found it in the recent articles bin on the right of the main forum window.

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3529241

@rch10007Aug 31.2005 — #Um....if you spend the time to create material for the web, shouldn't you be happy that others would take that and spread it further around.

IMO, the Internet is leveling the playing field and one day as more people "connect" we can overcome those who take advantage of people that are unaware.

To quote a TV show "The truth is out there," and I say SPREAD it around. I know I sound a little communist - but that isn't such a bad thing given the right context.

@NevermoreAug 31.2005 — #This article link below doesn't answer the question...

...http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3529241[/QUOTE]

I don't think that article's about protecting site content; from my understanding it seems to be about the US copyright agency's website not being cross-browser accessible. Still important though. ?

@Compguy_PeteAug 31.2005 — #I totally agree however there was one line that I thought was more interesting than the others...

The Copyright Office is in the process of setting up a system to let creators pre-register unpublished works that are being prepared for commercial distribution. [/QUOTE]

But the rest of the article itself was very very interesting.