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Preventing THEFT

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Hi Dave ...
Dave Peters said:
I would have every page on your site check for the existance of a
"viewed copyright" cookie. If it exists, just display the page. If
not show the copyright and have the agree button set the cookie and
return to the original requested page.

Then it doesn't matter what page they link to from a search engine,
they always see the notice and get the page they requested if they
agree. They never get to see the notice more than once (until the
cookie expires).
Click to expand...
Now that would RULE, but unfortunately my html skills are limited to MSFrontPage and I wouldn't know how to start a cookie thingy. :-)

I like the idea though .. that would make things simple and most effective (IMO).

Regards,
Dave
 
Dave Peters said:
I would have every page on your site check for the existance of a
"viewed copyright" cookie. If it exists, just display the page. If
not show the copyright and have the agree button set the cookie and
return to the original requested page.

Then it doesn't matter what page they link to from a search engine,
they always see the notice and get the page they requested if they
agree. They never get to see the notice more than once (until the
cookie expires).
Click to expand...
Do I use this code and suppliment the page with the "background color" thing? I can add this code in the begining of my page??

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/How-to-create-and-retrieve-cookies-using-ASP/1491
 
Dave,

Just some thoughts…

I haven't read this entire thread, so I apologize in advance, if it's been covered. First are foremost, if it's on the Internet, you can't stop it from being downloaded. Once you face that fact, then you can move on.

You don't have to deter people from entering your website, like the "enter if you like my copyright page."

Do what you're already doing watermark your pictures. I would also embed your © right into the EXIF information. Not that this will stop anybody, but at least it's in the meta-data of the file. There is also a way in Photoshop to embedded the © in the picture/

I would also remove the right-click code to stop from saving your pictures. You’re wasting your time. Try this using IE. Move your mouse over the picture. I get a little tool bar popping up and have the ability to email the picture, if I click that I get your picture as an attached, no problem.

I've faced the same challenges as you, and decided it's not worth my time to stop people, I can only deter them. I use http://slideshowpro.net/ for my galleries. I know some people don't like flash. Too bad. I use it, the software is amazing and the galleries are very slick and completely customizable. Flash is more of a deterrent, as the person would have to do a screen print, and crop the image, etc. Probably not worth their time…

I also use Google Analytics (totally free http://www.google.com/analytics/ ) to analyze my web traffic, and I know the majority of people are using high speed, and IE, for example… I also know I got 28 referrals from dpreview over the last 30 days, etc.
  • Paul S.
Disclaimer:
--------------

The comments made here are of my own opinions and experiences. The comments are not meant to be a testament of anybody else’s experiences but mine.

http://www.surettephotography.com
 
Hi Paul ...
TargetSu said:
Dave,

Just some thoughts…

I haven't read this entire thread, so I apologize in advance, if it's
been covered. First are foremost, if it's on the Internet, you can't
stop it from being downloaded. Once you face that fact, then you can
move on.
Click to expand...
I've already accepted this (thanks to the many replies who feel as you do) -- thanks though.

...snip ...
TargetSu said:
I've faced the same challenges as you, and decided it's not worth my
time to stop people, I can only deter them. I use
http://slideshowpro.net/ for my galleries. I know some people don't
like flash. Too bad. I use it, the software is amazing and the
galleries are very slick and completely customizable. Flash is more
of a deterrent, as the person would have to do a screen print, and
crop the image, etc. Probably not worth their time…
Click to expand...
This program looks prmossing. However, can you edit the program to sell photos from the flash output it provides?
TargetSu said:
I also use Google Analytics (totally free
http://www.google.com/analytics/ ) to analyze my web traffic, and I
know the majority of people are using high speed, and IE, for
example… I also know I got 28 referrals from dpreview over the last
30 days, etc.
Click to expand...
I had a look and I use something similar which doesn't bog-down my system

Thanks again fr the valued feedback my friend.

Regards,
Dave
 
Yes, you can have any name and value for a cookie, its just whatever is conveniant for you to remember. You just need to use the same name when you try to retrieve it as when you stored it.

You would need to do something like page redirect to your copyright page if the cookie returns a blank.

Not saying you should do this - just its an idea if you decide you want this facility.

--
Dave Peters
 
Hi Guys and THANKS to EVERYONE for your interaction, feedback, advise and suggestions. I've decided to simply post a "copyright" message at each gallery and sleep peacefully thereafter. If images are going to be stolen they will be regardless of what you do .. or don't do.

So, moving forward .. I'll try and design my site using the KISS (Keep It Simple Sam) method.

Thanks again everyone for your support and above all .. patience. :-)

Regards,
Dave
 
I realize the topic of image theft is an important one, and certainly one we all care about. However, in the quest to redesign my site I discovered the MANY instabilities of FrontPage and the adverse affects it has when one installs those FrontPage Extensions.

That being said, I created a form (using FrontPage) for folks to use when they need to contact me -- but it requires (you guessed it) ... FrontPage extensions be installed. Would it be possible to create another such form (no pun intended) of form-mail I can incorporate into the site?

I'm desperately trying to keep the site simple, so it's fast and functional. All it has is one image (the banner) and the rest is simply text within a table/cells. I can easily design it using FrontPage (it's all I know), and publish using ftp because I'm scared (after what I went through yesterday) to reload the FrontPage extensions and publish using FrontPage.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Dave
 
Dave,

Frontpage Extensions run on your websever. If you webhosting company supports Extensions, then it should work.

If you do not want to use extensions, you have to use some other device to make your webserver send you an email.

I use ASP code on my website and my webserver has an asp server module called CDONT for sending email. The code is not hard but you really need to understand ASP programming to do it.

I'm sure there are other ways to do this but I believe it is beyond the capabilities of pure HTML.
 
Hi Brian ...
Brian Kunde said:
Dave,

Frontpage Extensions run on your websever. If you webhosting company
supports Extensions, then it should work.
Click to expand...
And it WAS working (I use GoDaddy and had Windows Hosting). However, I recently changed to Linux based Hosting because what happened to me scared me AWAY from Windows AND FrontPage.
Brian Kunde said:
If you do not want to use extensions, you have to use some other
device to make your webserver send you an email.
Click to expand...
Everytime I activate my extentions, and someone tried to access my page (any page) it would ask them for a user-name and password. When I disabled the extensions .. everything went back to normal. I tried this again my removing and reinstalling the extensions, but Mr. Password kept coming back. It was quite annoying!!

My site is rather simple in design .. one banner and the rest is text within tables -- that's it. That being said, I can simply edit (using FrontPage even) then ftp to my host.

However, (like you said above) I have to have extensions installed for the "form" to work. Unfortunately, I'm suffering from Extension Fobia at the moment, and am uncertain of recovery time.
Brian Kunde said:
I use ASP code on my website and my webserver has an asp server
module called CDONT for sending email. The code is not hard but you
really need to understand ASP programming to do it.
Click to expand...
Don't even know what ASP means, if that tells ya something. :-(
Brian Kunde said:
I'm sure there are other ways to do this but I believe it is beyond
the capabilities of pure HTML.
Click to expand...
I'll see if I can find some php (I think it's called that) stuff out there to use. We'll see.

Thanks aagin friend.

Regards,
Dave
 
Dave,

Every webhosting company is different. As far as I know, you can only use Frontpage extensions with a MS Servers, not Linux servers (but I maybe wrong).

When you turn on extensions, it sounds like your "anonymous user" did not get setup to have browser rights. Nothing to be afraid of. It should default to this but somehow it did not. If you connect to your webserver with Frontpage, you can set the anonymous user rights in the TOOLS/SERVER/PERMISSIONS section if your webhosting company will let you. If not, you may have to deal with their Tech Support people.

ASP is a script language similar to Visual Basic that runs on most MS Servers. If you see websites with the .asp extension, those are using ASP. ASP is different than ASP.NET (or usually called just .NET). .NET is an advanced interpreter that runs on MS Servers that can run about a dozen different programming languages so it can provide abilities way beyond HTML or ASP. On my website I use some .NET code which dynamically grabs my image files from a secured folder, resized them for the browser and adds the watermark. It is a fairly secure way to have image files on the internet.

Linux servers often use PHP, which is similar in function to ASP. I'm not familiar with PHP being a MS Server man myself.

If you are on a Linux server, you can probably find some PHP code to do what you want.

Many webhosting companies have JPG Resizing Components that you can use to dynamically resize image files and display them on your website. You will have to check with your webhosting company to see if they have such a thing.

Good luck.
 
DOrtiz said:
My concern is if I display them in very low quality it may deter
sales, but if I make them too high -- folks may simply take them.
Click to expand...
Yesterday I visited a couple to deliver them the picture DVDs from their wedding. I've began putting pictures on the wedding galleries at a size of 750 pixels max, and compressed as they should for the web, not too much, not too low (50/70KB).

Guess my surprise when I saw they had made 3 full packs of litterally dozens of 4x6 prints from the files on the site.

I never felt like putting logos on such "private" galleries. Before, I would display pictures not over 600 pixels. I don't feel bad about the prints, since they are pixellated anyway. But for those people and probably for others, it's more than enough to fill a spare album with all the pics they didn't buy in high resolution.

The prints sure looked good even for my trained eye. The funny thing is that upon first looking at the prints, I thought they had them printed on a bad minilab with too much sharpness enhancement, but it really was pixellation from the low res files.

From now on, I'll either go back to 600px, or put a logo, or keep the 750px but up the compression a notch.

Right click prevention is bothersome at best. I'd say compromise the files themselves. People will still be able to snatch them, but at least you know that if these people are OK with blocky jpegs as prints, you didn't miss a sale anyway since they don't seem to notice the difference.

EDIT : as an afterthought, I think people printing low-res files isn't good for my reputation... prints don't look sharp, and viewers might think it's all I can deliver when it's really web-sized files (unless the couple tells them they printed those from the files on the site).

' I'm french and I'm rude. Surprised? '
 
Hi Brian ...

Thanks for the very informatie info relative to the anonymous user thingy. I'll need to print your instructions and see if I can follow them through. I'm back on Windows Server becauae now my web is completely dead. I'll wait and see if it may be a propagation issue.. shrug..

Regards,
Dave
 
Hi Paul ...

That's EXACTLY what I mean, but I'm learning not to lose sleep over it. Heck, if they take the images ... so be it. My images have two (not so intrusive) strips runing across them. That combined with the copyright message, and right-click disable are inteneded to provide "obsticals" not prevent all together.

Therefore, if someone wants them with the strips ... they can have them. I can't do anything else but hope and pray we have a FEW decent and honest people left in this world. :-(

Regards,
Dave

PS: Do you have a gallery showing some sample pics that you posted of the wedding so I can compare resolution settings to mine??
 
Before I started using watermarks on my low-res images on my website (600 px max) I went to several graduation parties with picture boards displaying dozens of pictures stolen from my website. In one case, the mother felt so guilty afterwards I got a check in the mail a few days later. After that I started using watermarks.

Dave, about the money end of it. Yes, I don't charge much for prints but I average 2-4 orders a week. The average order is for 10-20 pictures so that can add up to $25 to $100 per week. That’s better than nothing for images I would normally just delete. If I have the time I might throw in an extra print or two. 4x6 prints are cheep and it's like the good ol days when you would get a baker's dozen donuts. People like getting stuff for free and they will remember that.

I know some would say that I am giving the pictures away, but this gets kids and parents looking at your work locally which leads to better paying jobs like graduation pictures, reunions, weddings, special events, etc..

I've been shooting for a local newspaper for three years and selling photos online for 1 1/2 years. I have nearly 10,000 hits on my website and getting well know in my community. Kids see me at sporting events and they want their picture taken so they can see it online. They tell their parents and parents order pictures. Once they see how nice the prints are, they keep you in mind for other photography jobs. Just this week I was asked to shoot a portrait of a high school athlete for an enlargement that is going up in the hallway at school. Currently I have about 6 of my pictures displayed in the school hallways and trophy case. You start getting your pictures displayed in public places and the job opportunities will come. That has been my business plan and so far it seems to be working well.

However, as mentioned before, I don't think it is beneficial for parents (don't care about the kids) to steal images from my website due to the low quality. I think you just have to do what you can within reason and figure those who go through the effort to steal them probably wouldn’t pay for them anyway.
 
needless to say it wasn't licensed for that use - it is an older one without a watermark but it was also licensed for use on another website -so could have been lifted from either. :(

--
******************************************
http://www.pbase.com/cindyd
 
Gates did not steal Q-DOS. He bought it, and then developed it further. He did pay an additional sum down the road to be sure it was absolutely wrapped up tight. That was prudence.
 
DOrtiz said:
I'll see if I can find some php (I think it's called that) stuff out
there to use. We'll see.
Click to expand...
Dave, you might give phpmail a try. Get the most recent version.

http://www.google.com/search?q=phpmail&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

On the CGI side, you can usually use perl on a Linux-based Web server. Stay away from the one called formmail; it gets too many hits from spammers seeking to abuse it. Here's one that has a good reputation.
http://www.boutell.com/email/

Information on how exactly to set the perl script up on your site would have to come from your Web host. It'd probably have to be placed in a specific directory, and you might need to change the path to perl and/or the path to sendmail in the script. That information varies from host to host, so again, you'd need to contact your Web hosting support folks for further info.

Hope this helps.

--
geek
--
A 'must watch' for forum participants everywhere!
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/posting
 
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