Preserved Topic: How to prevent image-stealing? $Pages that link to <a href="https://ozoneasylum.com/backlink?for=18272" title="Pages that link to Preserved Topic: How to prevent image-stealing?" rel="nofollow" >Preserved Topic: How to prevent image-stealing?\$

Author	Thread
VPChrisPV Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them... Insane since: May 2001	posted 07-28-2001 04:20 Hey folks... is there any means or tricks in HTML, DHTML or even Javascript to prevent folks from stealing images from your pages? Even making it harder for them TO access and grab the images would be fine; I'm running into a problem with folks stealing images from my site and using them in sigs & their own pages, without credit or asking. I realize this is common on the web, but it is highly annoying. Thanks for the help... Chris Church of the Bunny
kretsminky Maniac (V) Inmate From: A little lower... lower... ahhhhhh, thats the spot Insane since: Jun 2000	posted 07-28-2001 04:27 Nope, because all it takes is... Print Screen > Open PS > Paste
VPChrisPV Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them... Insane since: May 2001	posted 07-28-2001 04:39 (sigh) Great. Maybe I should beg or borrow a copy of Flash and just redo my site THAT way. But...(raising head in hope) let's say that the folks in question don't know about that -- all they know is click/save off the page itself. Is there any means to prevent THAT? Or at least to hide the file-path to the image directory? I realize I can't stop everybody, but even stopping the newbies with no sense of Internet protocol & courtesy would be welcome... Church of the Bunny [This message has been edited by VPChrisPV (edited 07-28-2001).]
Slime Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist From: Massachusetts, USA Insane since: Mar 2000	posted 07-28-2001 04:47 You can use the ol' right click script if you must, but it makes your page look amateurish, and it's easy to get around if they know enough to look in the source code.
Pugzly Paranoid (IV) Inmate From: 127.0.0.1 Insane since: Apr 2000	posted 07-28-2001 04:48 If you use Java to display the image, there is no right click option. Dunno how to do it, but I have seen it done.
VPChrisPV Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them... Insane since: May 2001	posted 07-28-2001 05:02 (sighing) yet another brilliant idea shot down by ugly fact. But thanks, folks. No, amateurish is not the way to go, and with the type of Javascript rollover used on the page in question, they HAVE to look in the source to get the image, since moving the mouse over the image causes it to change to something with my site-title all over it. I'll settle just for e-mailing them nasty letters; it's not that hard to track said sites down, since it's a fan site for a rock band, and the graphics in question are of interest only to other fans. Need some way to release tension after a long day. Church of the Bunny
Slime Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist From: Massachusetts, USA Insane since: Mar 2000	posted 07-28-2001 05:16 If they're in like jr high or something, we could probably scare them with legal sounding letters. =) How old are these people?
WarMage Maniac (V) Mad Scientist From: Rochester, New York, USA Insane since: May 2000	posted 07-28-2001 15:31 I can steal your flash images as well. If you are concerned about your stuff being stolen, your in the wrong bis. People are going to take you images, use them as their own, and what not. Your job is to create great sites for people, and to attempt to fight the theft when you notice that it has occured. It is stealing, but it is stealing of ones and zero's so it is much harder to work with. Put the copyright notice at the bottom of the page and hope it helps. And don't spend time worrying about it. 95% of the stuff people put online is not worth the effort to protect. I find that most sites that attempt to stop people from taking their stuff are worthless anyways.
Minkies Bipolar (III) Inmate From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Insane since: Jan 2001	posted 07-30-2001 12:08 Try this <body oncontextmenu="return false"> page info </body> no right click, no alt button option, no ugly box coming up saying "Copyright" (Example ) They may be able to view source to some extent but if you use frames, like in the example you'll only get to see the framesets of the page. GL The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.
lallous Paranoid (IV) Inmate From: Lebanon Insane since: May 2001	posted 07-30-2001 12:46 You can always download the image directly by supplying it's full URL.
Minkies Bipolar (III) Inmate From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Insane since: Jan 2001	posted 07-30-2001 12:53 I guess so.... IF you know what the URL is so...if you can't view the SRC code, you can't tell what the URL of the image is (thats why i like frames) The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.
mr.maX Maniac (V) Mad Scientist From: Belgrade, Serbia Insane since: Sep 2000	posted 07-30-2001 13:11 There are many ways to get page source code. For example, I can easily write a server-side script or win32 application that can fetch specified page, parse it for URLs and then fetch all files...
Minkies Bipolar (III) Inmate From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Insane since: Jan 2001	posted 07-30-2001 13:34 okay okay - i lose... - you programmers are too good for me i wouldn't have had a clue myself on how to grab those images many moons ago. apart from save the page onto PC (images are saved too) or save the page onto PC and then drag drop the page into notepad to get the source. but how many pc/browser newbies would know to do that? The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.
u-neek Bipolar (III) Inmate From: Berlin, Germany Insane since: Jan 2001	posted 07-31-2001 09:50 i think you can also put a transparent-layer over your images...
mr.maX Maniac (V) Mad Scientist From: Belgrade, Serbia Insane since: Sep 2000	posted 07-31-2001 17:44 IMHO Implementing such things that make image stealing harder are just waste of time...
Slime Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist From: Massachusetts, USA Insane since: Mar 2000	posted 07-31-2001 17:53 yeah, but it's still possible to get at them through the source, and if you use just one big layer than none of your links will work.
galaxal Paranoid (IV) Inmate From: Insane since: Oct 2000	posted 08-01-2001 04:31 stop wasting time on this one, as max said. kretsminky pointed it out immediately after VPChrisPV asked, print-screen saves whatever is on the screen, I think the only solution is NOT to put any images on your page if you don't people to steal it.
MR. CACTUS Neurotic (0) Inmate Newly admitted	posted 08-04-2001 17:46 adding scripts to slow people down, usually just make them mad, and they take all your images. instead of just the ones they want..... Well,to make your day even less joyfull, most hosting servers, have free Transloaders for users to copy an entire site, which anfelfire.com has, as well as many others... they r designed to move your site to their server, but they get abused all to often..
skyguy500 Obsessive-Compulsive (I) Inmate From: San Diego Insane since: Aug 2001	posted 08-31-2001 17:35 None of the current image protection software that's available can protect images from theft. Clever Content and CopySafe are both circumvented very easily. Clever Content uses some pretty nifty javascript to attempt image protection. Their plugin in the windows environment uses a technique called subclassing. Subclassing is a way to intercept different system messages that tell a window how to behave. CopySafe Temporarily disables several parts of your desktop so that you can't do anything while the browser is displaying the image from the plugin. It also searches memory for any program with the words "capture" or "copy" in the name. I wrote a simple utility that takes ownership of the window handle of the plugin object and that makes the image easily scrollable onto the form of my utility. You can then do a screen capture. Windows is an easy operating system to program in, but it's also the easiest to hack. My suggestions to anyone that wants to protect their images is not to put them on the web. If you must put them on the web at least put a watermark on them. This will deter most image theives since the hassle of trying to remove a watermark is not worth it. Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Because the door's open!
Pugzly Paranoid (IV) Inmate From: 127.0.0.1 Insane since: Apr 2000	posted 08-31-2001 19:51 I've seen some Java apps that made it difficult (except for the print screen). If it's an animated image, print screen won't catch the animation. But....... You're SOL. And, if people want to steal your stuff, it's because they like the work. Enjoy that!

Preserved Topic: How to prevent image-stealing?\$

Author

Thread

VPChrisPV
Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate

From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them...
Insane since: May 2001

posted 07-28-2001 04:20

Hey folks...

is there any means or tricks in HTML, DHTML or even Javascript to prevent folks from stealing images from your pages? Even making it harder for them TO access and grab the images would be fine; I'm running into a problem with folks stealing images from my site and using them in sigs & their own pages, without credit or asking. I realize this is common on the web, but it is highly annoying.

Thanks for the help...

Chris

Church of the Bunny

kretsminky
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: A little lower... lower... ahhhhhh, thats the spot
Insane since: Jun 2000

posted 07-28-2001 04:27

Nope, because all it takes is...

Print Screen > Open PS > Paste

VPChrisPV
Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate

From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them...
Insane since: May 2001

posted 07-28-2001 04:39

(sigh) Great. Maybe I should beg or borrow a copy of Flash and just redo my site THAT way.

But...(raising head in hope) let's say that the folks in question don't know about that -- all they know is click/save off the page itself. Is there any means to prevent THAT? Or at least to hide the file-path to the image directory? I realize I can't stop everybody, but even stopping the newbies with no sense of Internet protocol & courtesy would be welcome...

Church of the Bunny

[This message has been edited by VPChrisPV (edited 07-28-2001).]

Slime
Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist

From: Massachusetts, USA
Insane since: Mar 2000

posted 07-28-2001 04:47

You can use the ol' right click script if you must, but it makes your page look amateurish, and it's easy to get around if they know enough to look in the source code.

Pugzly
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From: 127.0.0.1
Insane since: Apr 2000

posted 07-28-2001 04:48

If you use Java to display the image, there is no right click option. Dunno how to do it, but I have seen it done.

VPChrisPV
Nervous Wreck (II) Inmate

From: Under the bed...my god, they're still THERE, I can SEE them...
Insane since: May 2001

posted 07-28-2001 05:02

(sighing) yet another brilliant idea shot down by ugly fact. But thanks, folks.

No, amateurish is not the way to go, and with the type of Javascript rollover used on the page in question, they HAVE to look in the source to get the image, since moving the mouse over the image causes it to change to something with my site-title all over it.

I'll settle just for e-mailing them nasty letters; it's not that hard to track said sites down, since it's a fan site for a rock band, and the graphics in question are of interest only to other fans. Need some way to release tension after a long day.

Church of the Bunny

Slime
Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist

From: Massachusetts, USA
Insane since: Mar 2000

posted 07-28-2001 05:16

If they're in like jr high or something, we could probably scare them with legal sounding letters. =) How old are these people?

WarMage
Maniac (V) Mad Scientist

From: Rochester, New York, USA
Insane since: May 2000

posted 07-28-2001 15:31

I can steal your flash images as well.

If you are concerned about your stuff being stolen, your in the wrong bis. People are going to take you images, use them as their own, and what not.

Your job is to create great sites for people, and to attempt to fight the theft when you notice that it has occured. It is stealing, but it is stealing of ones and zero's so it is much harder to work with. Put the copyright notice at the bottom of the page and hope it helps.

And don't spend time worrying about it. 95% of the stuff people put online is not worth the effort to protect.

I find that most sites that attempt to stop people from taking their stuff are worthless anyways.

Minkies
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Insane since: Jan 2001

posted 07-30-2001 12:08

Try this

<body oncontextmenu="return false">
page info
</body>
no right click, no alt button option, no ugly box coming up saying "Copyright" (Example )
They may be able to view source to some extent but if you use frames, like in the example you'll only get to see the framesets of the page.
GL

The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.

lallous
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From: Lebanon
Insane since: May 2001

posted 07-30-2001 12:46

You can always download the image directly by supplying it's full URL.

Minkies
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Insane since: Jan 2001

posted 07-30-2001 12:53

I guess so....

IF you know what the URL is

so...if you can't view the SRC code, you can't tell what the URL of the image is (thats why i like frames)

The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.

mr.maX
Maniac (V) Mad Scientist

From: Belgrade, Serbia
Insane since: Sep 2000

posted 07-30-2001 13:11

There are many ways to get page source code. For example, I can easily write a server-side script or win32 application that can fetch specified page, parse it for URLs and then fetch all files...

Minkies
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Insane since: Jan 2001

posted 07-30-2001 13:34

okay okay - i lose... - you programmers are too good for me

i wouldn't have had a clue myself on how to grab those images many moons ago.

apart from save the page onto PC (images are saved too)
or
save the page onto PC and then drag drop the page into notepad to get the source.

but how many pc/browser newbies would know to do that?

The person born with a talent they are meant to use, will find their greatest happiness in using it.

u-neek
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From: Berlin, Germany
Insane since: Jan 2001

posted 07-31-2001 09:50

i think you can also put a transparent-layer over your images...

mr.maX
Maniac (V) Mad Scientist

From: Belgrade, Serbia
Insane since: Sep 2000

posted 07-31-2001 17:44

IMHO Implementing such things that make image stealing harder are just waste of time...

Slime
Lunatic (VI) Mad Scientist

From: Massachusetts, USA
Insane since: Mar 2000

posted 07-31-2001 17:53

yeah, but it's still possible to get at them through the source, and if you use just one big layer than none of your links will work.

galaxal
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From:
Insane since: Oct 2000

posted 08-01-2001 04:31

stop wasting time on this one, as max said. kretsminky pointed it out immediately after VPChrisPV asked, print-screen saves whatever is on the screen, I think the only solution is NOT to put any images on your page if you don't people to steal it.

MR. CACTUS
Neurotic (0) Inmate
Newly admitted

posted 08-04-2001 17:46

adding scripts to slow people down, usually just make them mad, and they take all your images. instead of just the ones they want.....

Well,to make your day even less joyfull, most hosting servers, have free Transloaders for users to copy an entire site, which anfelfire.com has, as well as many others...
they r designed to move your site to their server, but they get abused all to often..

skyguy500
Obsessive-Compulsive (I) Inmate

From: San Diego
Insane since: Aug 2001

posted 08-31-2001 17:35

None of the current image protection software that's available can protect images from theft. Clever Content and CopySafe are both circumvented very easily. Clever Content uses some pretty nifty javascript to attempt image protection. Their plugin in the windows environment uses a technique called subclassing. Subclassing is a way to intercept different system messages that tell a window how to behave.

CopySafe Temporarily disables several parts of your desktop so that you can't do anything while the browser is displaying the image from the plugin. It also searches memory for any program with the words "capture" or "copy" in the name.

I wrote a simple utility that takes ownership of the window handle of the plugin object and that makes the image easily scrollable onto the form of my utility. You can then do a screen capture. Windows is an easy operating system to program in, but it's also the easiest to hack.

My suggestions to anyone that wants to protect their images is not to put them on the web. If you must put them on the web at least put a watermark on them. This will deter most image theives since the hassle of trying to remove a watermark is not worth it.

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Because the door's open!

Pugzly
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From: 127.0.0.1
Insane since: Apr 2000

posted 08-31-2001 19:51

I've seen some Java apps that made it difficult (except for the print screen). If it's an animated image, print screen won't catch the animation. But.......

You're SOL. And, if people want to steal your stuff, it's because they like the work. Enjoy that!