Protecting Images

[underwaterworld]

Could Anyone please tell me how I can protect my images. For example if a customer right clicks on the image is there any way that I can disable the menu?


Someone has said that i can use Java. But what would be the code for this?

[awjreynolds]

It is possible to encode some javascript on the page to protect your images, but if somebody wants your images they will get them. All they need to do is view source (to get the path to the image) or switch off JS in their browser.

Viewing the page will place a copy of the image on your hard disk anyway.

You either want to show people images of the products or you don't. You decide.

Just make sure their is a copyright on each page.

Adam

[allen]

<points to [Print Screen] button on keyboard>

With that, you can get any picture from any site. As long as you can see it on the screen, you can use that button to copy it to the clipboard.

My advice: Don't bother. It's not worth the effort.

Allen

[BrianCurtis]

Hi Gavin,

Here is the code for your clients to not right-click images. It will also bring up a message so edit to whatever suits you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1">

<!-- Begin
function stopthief(ie) { var warning = "© WARNING! All images are copyright to underwaterworld etc...";
if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape' && ie.which == 3) {
alert(warning);
return false;
}
else
if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' &&
event.button==2) {
alert(warning);
return false;
}
return true;
}
document.onmousedown = stopthief;
// End --></script>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In my opinion, not everyone knows how to grab images from printscreen (CMD SHIFT+3 on Mac) or to follow links to open them. In AOL, you can simply drag images to your desktop too apparently!

Use every option you can I say, and this is only a case of cut & paste in Act Primary and you are done, so no big deal. Remember to get the copyright symbol © Hold down the Alt key and use the numbers on the right-hand side of the keyboard to type 0169 this will give you ©.

Cheers,

[allen]

If its something like t-shirt designs that your trying to stop people stealing, stick a watermark 'sample' across it. It doesn't have to be full-on black text - both Photoshop and Fireworks (and probably Paint Shop Pro) can do semi-transparent text.

Allen

[BrianCurtis]

Agree with Allen, the easiest way is to add a 'watermarked' copyright or 'sample' message. I have done that throughout my site because we are selling images via v6.

What I am looking for in the future is to have an executing image file that becomes unnusable after a designated license expires. This way, even if it is copied, the image would lapse and become non-useable. The big problems with this are that it is a) impossible at the moment (I think?) and b) if someone has an image they can simply print and then scan back in!

New technology is making copyrighting issues a bigger battle and if I hear right about the new Palladium system for Windows (managed rights to reduce copyright theft) then at least someone is taking it seriously!

But, Apple have decided to release their OSX platform for the PC too because they want to give PC users the right to get their hands on whatever copyrighted material they choose, be it music, images, films whatever! They believe that everyone has the right to download whatever they wish and it should be up to the copyright holders to protect their works!

I say, great excuse to nail the Windows platform and get Apple OSX on every PC in the world!

But.. who is going to help me protect my downloadable images though? Hmmmm, Chris.. come on, you're a clever dick! ;-)

[allen]

<makes cross with his fingers>
ARGH! PALLADIUM! DIE! DIE! DIE!

And IMHO: LINUX FOREVER!

Apple have made the right decision though, considering they seem to have a thing for killing off Mac fans (not literally (cites AntiTrust)). Microsoft's empire is going rotten, Linux is just about ready for the mass-market desktop, and now Mac allow PC users to choose their OS too.

There's gonna be a looooooooooooot of changes around here soon! Are you ready?

Allen

[mbdevelopments]

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but I was just wondering if there were any new ideas on this subject.
I'm about to put about 1500 images into our actinic shop and don't want to go down the road of putting our name on each picture, it has taken too long already!

I have looked into digital watermarking but it is pricey.

I am only really worried because we have had images pinched before by a competitor (He jokingly said he thought it was OK because he had purchased some of the items from us anyway!).

Can I put the "right click doesn't work" javascript into catalog somehow? This will deter the casual thief!

Ian

[NormanRouxel]

I just searched on google for batch image watermark and LOTS came up.

Norman

[mbdevelopments]

Thanks.

I am going to try Reawatermark on the big images.
I will leave the thumbnails as they are so the main pages don't look crap with watermarks everywhere.
There is not a lot you can do with a 100pixel wide jpeg in terms of image theft.

Ian

[BrianCurtis]

Hi Ian,

Please visit my website to see the code www.subartclub.com As long as you put it in the templates (I used actinic_primary.html which then caters for all the others) just cut and paste the code and put it in the HEAD of your template.

Brian

PS: my newest store will be here soon www.organicimage.com where I am getting back into airbrushing artwork onto bikes, snowmobiles, cars whatever.

[mbdevelopments]

Thanks Brian,
Like the R1 on the organic site.

I am torn between putting a copyright notice on each picture (which would do my head in if I was a punter looking at all the pictures) or using the javascript to make it harder.

Either way the images are nickable but at the end of the day they are only product images from a specialist market.

Yes I have put in a lot of time to get them done but our market is small enough that I could easily know if anyone had pinched them.

My gut feeling is to just put them up there and then bollock anyone who rips us off. I will put a warning in the terms and conditions etc.

Ian

[BrianCurtis]

To be honest Ian, from what Ive learned over the last two years, if someone wants to rob you of your images they will do it and it doesn't matter WHAT you do to stop it.

Put the javascript on and also, instead of watermarking all images in Photoshop (which you can make an Action for and makes it much quicker to do btw) just put the old © mark on every page in your template and your name and the date etc. and people know, it's simple, we tend to over-worry about it.

I don't know what your images are for so it's hard to make a definitive comment about them but, like I said, if the images are worth copying you can bet that someone, somewhere will do it and they won't care even if they agree to your terms and conditions because a theif is a theif is a criminal and they won't bend some rules and not others, they'll just break them all.

I know an illustrator in NZ who is very well known globally and sells licensed image rights print his art on t-shirts. he has had his shirts ripped off right down to the custom labels they produce which say they are the 'definate article'.

it's a skrewed-up world and unfortunately, when we use the internet to sell and market our wares, some people think we are inviting plagiarism! I even got told by one guy in an email when discussing this toipic, 'Well the Internet is MADE is stealing images, that's why you put them there!'

You can only do what you can do. I'm sure one day in the future it will be impossible to copy others work without them knowing, it's just a matter of time and technology catching up and of course, educating the people about how important image ownership REALLy is!

Good luck and thanks for the complimets on the R1 :)

Brian

[mbdevelopments]

The pictures are all of Lambretta scooter parts, nuts, bolts etc.
Quite boring to most.

Ian

[wesleythorne]

Hi, i received an email today from an american school who have asked for permision to use an image of mine. The image is of some Tic Tacs, fresh mints !
I had a quick scan through there site and saw that they are allready using my image without permision.
This does not bother too much, if they ask then i will say yes and they could put a link to my store on there site.All though it is polite to ask first.

However, they are linking directly to my serevr where the image is stored and not hosting it on there own. This means that it is costing me server bandwidth. This raises the point that how do I know who is linking directly to my images. For all I know there could be several sites all using my images and eating into my bandwidth unknown to me.
Is there a way to see who is linking to my images.

Kind Regards
wesley Thorne

[vernonmpurcell]

I think I am right in saying that you can watermark your images in Photoshop and you list your images then employe a company that can keep track of these imaged over the net I think I saw it at alldomains.com

I always visit site in our industry to see if anyone had stolen any images as they cost me a pretty penny our photographer charges £600.00 a day plus film and development

Vernon
www.carpetcleaningworld.com

[jont]

Wesley - it may be worth doing a backwards link to your web page under Google eg:

link:http://www.domain.co.uk/acatalog/web_page.html

This may through up who is linking to your page and possibly your image - just a thought

[garyhay]

We have lots of images on srcpics.com (http://www.srcpics.com) that we put watermarks in. Once they are in we dont care if people nick them as its free publicity and the images are useless to print.

You can use image gallery and Image Magik to put watermarks on images.

£600 a day for a photographer is quite expensive and if he is using Film (wats that I hear you say) it's costing more than it need to.

[jont]

£600 a day for a photographer is quite expensive and if he is using Film (wats that I hear you say) it's costing more than it need to.

I bit the bullet and purchased a top quality digital camera and a mini lighting studio for £1500.00 - we need to add new products quickly and also provide mock-ups to show how certain non-standard combinations of products would look - the results are almost equal to what the professionals turned out for us and are good enough for brochure print as well as the measly 72dpi for the internet.

Hit the wallet hard for the initial outlay but in 3 months it has already paid for itself.... plus I won't need a professional photographer in tow next week on holiday :D