How to prevent someone from copying your website photos?
- Thread starter sheddy
- Start date
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sheddy said:
There isn't one - well, that I know of anyway.
You can use a number of different tactics to obfuscate, but anyone with a reasonable understanding of HTML and browsers should be able to locate the image source location and download it directly.
One of the more common methods is to use Javascript to disable the right-click function whilst someone is on your page - so they can't right-click and Save as ... - although it's easy to get around if you know how!
.Google it and give it a go if you're curious as to how it works.
Cheers,
Shaun
swee'pea99
Squire
Dare I say there is in truth no way. If I want an image and someone's done that Java trick, I just do a screen grab and cut out the bit I want.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I 'watermark' mine. Sometimes I do it subtly and sometimes more obviously. The Picture Shark software I use is free and it is easy to adjust the position and intensity of the watermark.
Subtle watermark, but would be easy to crop out of picture
Obvious watermark which can't simply be cropped out.
Somebody could still pinch the photos but they'd have to obliterate the watermarks. I move them around on a photo-by-photo basis so they would have to do each one manually. Most people wouldn't bother and would go and pinch somebody else's pictures instead.
Subtle watermark, but would be easy to crop out of picture
Obvious watermark which can't simply be cropped out.
Somebody could still pinch the photos but they'd have to obliterate the watermarks. I move them around on a photo-by-photo basis so they would have to do each one manually. Most people wouldn't bother and would go and pinch somebody else's pictures instead.
Attachments
thomas
the tank engine
- Location
- Woking/Norwich
sheddy said:
have crappy photos?
amnesia
Free-wheeling into oblivion...
- Location
- Bournemouth, Dorset
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
Do you really think you still 'own' an image once you've published it?
amnesia
Free-wheeling into oblivion...
- Location
- Bournemouth, Dorset
MacB said:
You still own the copyright... yes
Re-use without authorisation / payment is copyright theft, although I guess it depends on how much money you have to enforce it.
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
amnesia said:
I don't fancy the long term sustainability of copyright laws
It's impossible.
All you can do is make it undesirable for them to use it to their own ends, i.e. watermark it.
By putting your website online, you are allowing people to download your photo. When someone refreshes your page, the photo has then gone onto their machine. You can't control what they do with their own machine. To enable them to view the photo, you have to send it to them.
What you can do is put a right click handler on the page, which simply just puts a javascript message box up, since most people save a picture by right-clicking on it, and choosing 'save image as' from the context menu, but it is (a) pretty naff, and (B) pretty easy to circumvent by simply using the main menu Page -> View Source, finding the image and copying it into a new window. That's not to say it won't prevent some potential instances of it being copied, though, as not everyone necessarily knows this.
FWIW I often find that on sportive web sites the pictures are watermarked but not enough to make it worth bothering paying for the unwatermarked version. I consider it perfectly morally acceptable to save these photos, as I own myself, therefore I deem it the case that I also own all pictures of myself. Especially when the photographer has shown little imagination or skill and just taken yet another generic grimping shot. The one that was actually a good photo where i was hooning it along pretty fast, I did actually buy it.
All you can do is make it undesirable for them to use it to their own ends, i.e. watermark it.
By putting your website online, you are allowing people to download your photo. When someone refreshes your page, the photo has then gone onto their machine. You can't control what they do with their own machine. To enable them to view the photo, you have to send it to them.
What you can do is put a right click handler on the page, which simply just puts a javascript message box up, since most people save a picture by right-clicking on it, and choosing 'save image as' from the context menu, but it is (a) pretty naff, and (B) pretty easy to circumvent by simply using the main menu Page -> View Source, finding the image and copying it into a new window. That's not to say it won't prevent some potential instances of it being copied, though, as not everyone necessarily knows this.
FWIW I often find that on sportive web sites the pictures are watermarked but not enough to make it worth bothering paying for the unwatermarked version. I consider it perfectly morally acceptable to save these photos, as I own myself, therefore I deem it the case that I also own all pictures of myself. Especially when the photographer has shown little imagination or skill and just taken yet another generic grimping shot. The one that was actually a good photo where i was hooning it along pretty fast, I did actually buy it.
swee'pea99
Squire
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
swee said:Oi, that's my photograph that you doctored!
The thing is, if it came to a legal battle about the ownership of a photograph, who has the undoctored original to use as evidence? It's obvious from that photograph that it has been messed about with. If you look at what I posted, you can see the original photo through the watermark.
You can't stop somebody ripping off your pictures but you can make it more difficult for them. You can also prove that only you have the original without the watermark.
swee'pea99
Squire
Least I only doctored a piccy - you've brutalised those poor forks. You savage.
