Thread: disabling copy paste and right click pro's and con's

There is only one thing that you can disable with JavaScript thay your visitors cannot override - that is JavaScript itself.

Your visitors have access to disable anything else that your JavaScript does.

Most browsers disable the ability of JavaScript to disable right click by default - you have to physically update the browser settings in order to permit JavaScript to disable that operating system functionality.

Most browsers don't have access to block the operating system copy function and so that can't be disabled from JavaScript in those browsers at all.


Watermarks work because they are embedded in the image itself and so even if someone copies the actual image file they then still have to edit the image itself to try to remove the watermark. Where the resolution of the image is set toward the low end of what displays properly on the web the act of editing to try to remove the watermark will lower the resolution of the image to the point where it is unusable.


Attempting to block normal browser functioning tends to annoy some people to the point where they will steal the content just to demonstrate to themselves that your attempt to block them is useless. Any attempts to block normal functioning of the browser will only affect legitimate visitors who use those functions for legitimate purposes. You should expect an increase in theft and a decrease in legitimate visitors as a result.

Here's a way of 'sort of encrypting' text that will prevent casual plagiarism. First convert the text into ascii or utf-8 so that it is not readable as text in the source code. Then cover the div that has the rendered text with another div of higher z-index so that it will not be selectable for copy and paste.

Originally Posted by durangod

Could they just take whats on the source page and use a converter to get the text?

Absolutely, but that takes more effort and more skill than the average web user has. I did say casual.

if someone has their heart set on ripping you off, you can't stop them. i've seen people using phones to take snapshots of laptop screens. if the user is a babysitter who wants you show her other children the material, a no-right-click will probably stop her from making a perfect copy, dead in her tracks.

most answerers on here are experts who would have no trouble at all copying whatever they want, so take their opinions with a grain of salt. Think more of someone like my mom who can barely use the page they way it was delivered, much less modify or otherwise appropriate the material. an over-sized clear textarea on everything but the nav will likely frustrate 95% of theft attempts.

security is a numbers game, always has been, and always will be. that's why some call it an illusion. if you ask a locksmith forum "is my kwikset lock safe?", they will laugh at you and your cheap crappy lock, but that's not to say it's not worth locking your door with it when you go on vacation. why? because most crooks aren't locksmiths, just like most users are not coders.


i don't mind people using technology to try to secure their content. to me, content is the lifeblood of the web, and if some procedure (effective or not) makes someone more comfortable having their work online, then it's only a good thing. i haven't seen much of anything to stop ME and MY desires yet, so i don't mind (heh). you can try to talk providers into not annoying their "customers", but that's hard to do. just go with the least intrusive measures for users that will still relax the content provider.

Originally Posted by durangod

My client writes very long stories more than 50,000 characters and they would like to be able to protect that work.

Here is the point: The internet as intended by Tim Berners-Lee was never designed to protect content, it was designed to provide content. You have to make that clear to your client; if you want to protect your content then don’t publish it (on the internet) in the first place.

Some people seem to have either forgotten or never understood the very nature of the internet. They just take things for granted and then complain if they don’t work according to their conceptions.

Thanks VIP and everyone for your reply's so far, this is great info.

I had a thought on this as i was not thinking about it lol... What about rather than try to hide stuff, secure stuff, turn off stuff. What about just a simple trapping of right click on page that brings up a javascript alert that simple says something like

Hi, i worked hard on this content, if your going to copy and paste it please show me as the author.

Or

Hi, i worked hard on this content, please ask before you take my hard work for yourself.


In other words why not just try to appeal to their logic or give them a bit of guilt by reminding them in a nice way they are pretty much stealing.

Its not intrusive, does not turn off features, and may just make them go someplace else.

Question is im not sure how to trap right click...

What do you all think of this idea?


UPDATE i was able to at least appease my client somewhat with this idea. We just wrapped the text itself in a div

Code:

<div oncontextmenu="javascript:alert('We worked hard on this text - please do not copy it - that is so wrong!');return false;">TEXT STUFF</div>

it is the lessor of most of the evils we spoke of, it only effects the text not the page so less chance to upset a good user. I know they can simply look at source but my client knows that. We will just hope that they assume the whole page is affected by this and move on down the road..

Thanks all..

You can't trap a right click - most browsers have that disabled by default and require the browser owner to turn on the ability of JavaScript to intercept the right click rather than it being passed directly to the context menu processing.

What you are actually looking for to cover this situation is called a copyright notice. While all pages are automatically covered by copyright even if they don't display a notice there are many people who apparently don't know this and so by displaying such a notice you ensure that they know that it applies to your content even where they incorrectly assume that content not so marked is not covered.

Originally Posted by felgall

You can't trap a right click - most browsers have that disabled by default and require the browser owner to turn on the ability of JavaScript to intercept the right click rather than it being passed directly to the context menu processing.

hmmm, i don't think so. i tested the page https://maps.google.com/ on Firefox, chrome, IE, and opera (12.14), and they all show a custom right-click menu on my windows7 workstation...

I don't think disabling right click to prevent theft of images is a good idea. As a user I found it annoying. What if I just want to right click and open the picture in a new tab so I can zoom in and see it better? For protecting your photos, I use a watermarking program like SquiggleMark. It lets me batch watermark hundreds of pictures at once. With a semi-transparent watermark showing a link to my website, it acts as free self promotion tool as well. You can't stop Internet piracy, but you can use it for your advantage to promote your work.