How to stop ppl downloading pics from website

[haydnw]

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option, because it's easy enough to view source and download the image directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own? Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

 

[johngeek]

The only real way to keep people from taking images from the page is to not put them on the page. The other tools you mentioned will make it harder, but will not stop it.

I'd suggest reducing the image resolution and croppin out two of the edges so you can prove ownership if someone does "steal" the images. I'd also put your name and URL on the images. That way, if someone does download them and use them, you'll still get "credit" for the work. You could even put in your TOS that the images may be freely used as long as they're not edited. That way, more people may actually see your work.

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

 

[Ben Lovejoy]

Short answer: you can't.

Question leading to longer answer: What is it you're wanting to prevent? Making unauthorised prints? Leeching your bandwidth? Use on other websites?

Ben

--
Photo section: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/
Photo gallery: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/photos/

 

[Jesse Custer99528]

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

All of these are either really annoying or ugly. The best way IMO is to put an invisible gif over the image so when they right-click they'll save the 1 KB invisible image instead of the image they thought they were saving.

But, you must know, this won't stop the determined amateur or the expert (who doesn't even have to be determined). They've already downloaded your image the moment they saw it on your site - all they have to do is retrieve it from their cache to have it permanently.

 

[Ben Lovejoy]

All of these are either really annoying or ugly. The best way IMO
is to put an invisible gif over the image so when they right-click
they'll save the 1 KB invisible image instead of the image they
thought they were saving.

How do you do that?

Ben

--
Photo section: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/
Photo gallery: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/photos/

 

[Zippy DooDah]

Any kid will know how to get around an invisible image placed over the real image. Would take an extra 10 seconds to bypass that. Takes you a lot longer to put it up there than it does for the kid to bypass it.

Web requires fewer colors and less resolution than prints, so simply make your web images 72 ppi at jpg quality 5 and put a watermark on the image.

Jesse Custer wrote:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

All of these are either really annoying or ugly. The best way IMO
is to put an invisible gif over the image so when they right-click
they'll save the 1 KB invisible image instead of the image they
thought they were saving.

 

[carl english]

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

Why on earth do you want to put images on any site if your so paranoid about someone downloading them,perhaps you should also include a message instructing viewers not to copy your method of capturing images or not to photograph a scene the way you do!

 

[Richard Wait]

I constrain all my web images to within 640x480. This is big enough for viewing and is small enough to be useless for printing. I also add a copyright notice on each image along the bottom, aligned to the right.

I would find it hard to believe people would take the time and effort to remove the notice and try and resize the image - if they did, it would probably cost less to buy a print!

Anything else more complicated and it will be easily defeated. If the user can see your image on screen, then they can easily see it in photoshop

The other option would be to put a very very slight watermark throughout the whole image, say running 45deg with your name or something in a small font. Enough to see, not enough to distract.

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

--
Regards - Richard



(This is the voice of the Mysterons, we know that you can hear us Earthmen)

 

[Jesse Custer99528]

Any kid will know how to get around an invisible image placed over
the real image. Would take an extra 10 seconds to bypass that.
Takes you a lot longer to put it up there than it does for the kid
to bypass it.

As I said, it'll only stop "undetermined amateurs". The reason I suggested it was the best way was because it was unobtrusive, it didn't insult the user (as the right-click disablers do), and didn't slow down the user's web surfing.

 

[Ben Lovejoy]

I constrain all my web images to within 640x480. This is big enough
for viewing and is small enough to be useless for printing. I also
add a copyright notice on each image along the bottom, aligned to
the right.

I hate text over the top of images - completely ruins the viewing experience for me.

What I do is add a matte and put the text on that, like so:



Easy to defeat, of course, but as you say, most people are not going to go to that much trouble. Most stolen web pics are either saved and used as they are, or are leeched directly from the original site.

Ben

--
Photo section: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/
Photo gallery: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/photos/

 

[Doug Ridgway]

If you're a pro, and this is your livelyhood, then you might consider investing in the Digimarc system — it's a standard PS Plugin, you need to subscribe to their service to track usage....there were some more indepth discussions about this product (which is pretty damn cool in the way it does watermarking)....it certainly preserves the look of your image and at the same time, gives you the ability to at least track any online usage of that image.

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

--
http://www.dougridgway.com/dpreview/urb_01/

 

[Kendall Helmstetter Gelner]

As I said, it'll only stop "undetermined amateurs". The reason I
suggested it was the best way was because it was unobtrusive, it
didn't insult the user (as the right-click disablers do), and
didn't slow down the user's web surfing.

What if they just wanted to download the picture to send to someone else, or use as a background? I think it does annoy the user - all you've done is create an opportunity for bad will on the part of the consumer. In all the talks about preventing theft we seem to be forgetting that making a potential customer not feel like a crook has some value as well.

--
---> Kendall
http://www.pbase.com/kgelner
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
Spring Shoot - http://www.pbase.com/kgelner/sigmaseason1

 

[Jesse Custer99528]

As I said, it'll only stop "undetermined amateurs". The reason I
suggested it was the best way was because it was unobtrusive, it
didn't insult the user (as the right-click disablers do), and
didn't slow down the user's web surfing.

What if they just wanted to download the picture to send to someone
else, or use as a background? I think it does annoy the user - all
you've done is create an opportunity for bad will on the part of
the consumer. In all the talks about preventing theft we seem to
be forgetting that making a potential customer not feel like a
crook has some value as well.

The kind of user that would be tricked by this, would assume they just did it wrong. No bad feelings (except a few of inadequacy).

 

[Zippy DooDah]

They're not entitled to use my images for a screensaver or to send to a friend without compensating me for the value they receive. If they want their friend to see the free image, they can send them to my web site which will have a watermark on the image to prevent theft.

The majority of PC users these days don't understand copyright law and think it's OK to download my images. It's not OK with me.

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner wrote:
What if they just wanted to download the picture to send to someone
else, or use as a background? I think it does annoy the user - all
you've done is create an opportunity for bad will on the part of
the consumer. In all the talks about preventing theft we seem to
be forgetting that making a potential customer not feel like a
crook has some value as well.

--
---> Kendall

 

[Jim Herndon]

I'm not sure Fuzzy Duenkel wrote this Java, but wouldn't be surprised if he did. It's a JavaScript program that prevents any method of saving or copying the image off the website (except by print screen or capture programs).

Look at the source code on:
http://www.duenkel.com/page2.html

Jim Herndon

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

 

[Jim Herndon]

Ha!

I forgot about scrolling to the top left of an image in IE. The print, save, etc., icon bar pops up. It's possible to save the JPEG using that method. I guess Fuzzy wrote the Java before that feature was available.

Jim Herndon

Look at the source code on:
http://www.duenkel.com/page2.html

Jim Herndon

Hi,

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway. I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea, but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!). One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

 

[afm171]

I cannot understand anyone putting a big ugly watermark over their work, i've never seen one that was subtle enough to be both inobtrusive and effective. It seriously harms the marketability of your work and that's the whole reason for putting it up there.

Is it worth alienating potential paying customers to prevent a few illegitamate users?

Photodisc used to watermark their online previews... but not anymore... they think not.

Disabling right mouse clicks or doing it in flash don't prevent screen captures.

The answer to this is to stop worrying so much, put a statement of ownership somewhere near the photo or along the path to viewing the photo, and perhaps a small signature in an inobtrusive place. Someone showed an example of a signature on the matte, i think that's the best.

 

[TugBoat]

"I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a way to stop people stealing my images,"

If it is a business, check out the New York Times web site and see how they sell the real famous pictures. Keep the image small, big watermark. Of course, people trust the NYT to give them a sharp and nice picture. The pictures on that web are absolutely useless unless you buy a copy.

If it is personal, I presume you want people to admire your pictures, then you don't have much of a choice. Check out http://www.photosig.com . Lots of people post decent pictures there without visible watermarks. So why would someone go to your site to thumb through hundreds of pictures with watermarks when they can do the same with less pain in photosig?

 

[Ben Lovejoy]

I'm not sure Fuzzy Duenkel wrote this Java, but wouldn't be
surprised if he did. It's a JavaScript program that prevents any
method of saving or copying the image off the website (except by
print screen or capture programs).

Look at the source code on:
http://www.duenkel.com/page2.html

I couldn't view the source, but I just downloaded one of the images by right-clicking on it without any problem at all.

My browser is Opera 7.50 running under XP.

Ben

--
Photo section: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/
Photo gallery: http://www.benlovejoy.com/photography/photos/

 

[Mike Fulton]

I'm about to start work on a website to display my work (purely on
a private basis, rather than as a business), and I'd quite like a
way to stop people stealing my images, as has been discussed on
this website several times before. My options at the moment seem to
be:

Disable right mouse clicks
Use a big watermark across the whole image
Use Flash for the website

Disabling right mouse clicks doesn't seem like a feasible option,
because it's easy enough to view source and download the image
directly, or use that horrible Internet Explorer image toolbar to
save it anyway.

Not to mention that there are perfectly valid choices in the right-mouse-click menu that have nothing to do with saving an image. What if somebody wants to click on a link and open it in a new window?

I gotta say, about half the time I see this sort of thing, I'm tempted to save the pictures off and EMAIL them back to the webpage author to demonstrate that all they're really doing is annoying people.

I'm not a big fan of the watermark idea...

This doesn't really stop people from getting the images, it just stops the images from being worth getting.

but can't
really be bothered learning how to use Flash (I'm building the site
using ASP.NET and I haven't got time to learn how to combine the
two!).

That's a lot like saying you don't know how to combine your submarine sandwich with your diet coke. They're not at all mutually exclusive and there's no great trick involved in using them together.

To use a Flash object in a webpage simply requires a particular combination of HTML that supplies the correct parameters. If you're using ASP.NET to generate webpages dynamically on the server, then you just have to make your script generate (or include from another file) the appropriate HTML at the appropriate place in the page.

But even if you use Flash, all anybody has to do is hit the "Print Scrn" key on their keyboard and a copy of the current screen will be placed on the clipboard, from where it can be saved off.

One other option I considered was splitting each image up
into, say, four parts and using a cunning table layout to piece
them back together in the browser, but cross-browser compatibility
might be an issue there.

This isn't likely to cause browser problems, but again, all anybody has to do is use the "Print Scrn" key.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how I can stop people
downloading or copying my pictures and using them as their own?
Thanks, it's much appreciated. Apologies if this isn't the right
forum but I couldn't see any other this message would particularly
fit in and I figured lots of people here will have sites!

It's ultimately impossible. I guarantee you that an experienced user will be able to get your image no matter what you do. Some methods may thwart some users, but nothing's going to thwart everybody.

I love it when I get the chance to use "thwart" in a sentence. ;^)

Mike