How To Stop Photo Thieves
I am attempting to assist a friend who is getting into photography. She has asked me to tell her how to make her sample photos copy proof. I know this can be done, but have no idea what to tell her. Can you please assist me with where to look for info on this. ---John
Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to prevent determined
and resourceful people from copying images from a Web site. When someone visits
a site with a picture on it, the image file has already been downloaded to their
system--- and it's on their screen. Even if you disable right-click saving, they
can usually still find the cached version, or, easier still, simply take a
screenshot, then crop away all but the picture in a photo-editing program.
Note that it is possible to prevent screen captures using a product called
CopySafe ( http://www.copysafe.net ). The
downside of CopySave is that visitors need a special, downloadable plug-in to
view the pictures, which may be an unwise requirement for a site trying to
attract visitors.
For maximum protection without harming usability, it's best to combine three
approaches: 1) establish and communicate legal protection; 2) watermark the
images; and 3) disable right-click saving.
Legally protect images by applying a Creative Commons license (
http://creativecommons.org/image/
) or Copyright (
http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html ). Notifying visitors of these
legal protections can serve as a limited deterrent.
Watermarking can mean two things. In its simplest form, it's overwriting the image with some identifying marker
that spoils the photos for others and allows you to demonstrate later that the
image is yours. Most online stock photos agencies use this method. Here's an
example: http://tinyurl.com/y93883
A more elaborate kind of watermarking is called
steganography: the art and science of writing hidden messages. In the case of
digital photos, you can embed a steganographic copyright message in an image in
a way that's essentially invisible to the eye. While this won't prevent people
from copying your images, it is a way to prove that a copied image is yours. In
other words, it's a way to prove a legal case against an infringer. See
http://tinyurl.com/4aphq ,
http://tinyurl.com/yfxv6b and
http://tinyurl.com/yhxjm5 .
For the third thing--- disabling right clicking--- the simplest way is to add to the page that displays
the pictures some well-crafted JavaScript. Here's an example script:
http://tinyurl.com/b5ij . While this will
deter casual image thieves, it's certainly not high security: Clicking
View/Source on the menu will bypass the JavaScript and reveal the page's raw
HTML code; which can be picked apart to find the URL of the image you're trying
to protect. Still, disabling right clicking is at least a speedbump, and may
help remind image thieves that they have no right to copy the images on the
page.
Another way to prevent right-click downloads is to position pictures on a web
page underneath transparent GIFs. That way, a right-click "Save As" download
gives them the useless GIF, not the picture. You can do this with cascading
style sheets (CSS) ( http://tinyurl.com/fym5b
), JavaScript ( http://tinyurl.com/sh3xg
) or with a table (
http://tinyurl.com/yxczs5 ).
And a more elaborate approach is to use Adobe Flash (
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro/ ), which is probably too
expensive and complicated for photo protection alone, but if you're already
using Flash, it might make sense to use it for this purpose.
This combination of legal, visual and functional deterrence should be enough to
dissuade most would-be picture thieves--- without turning away welcome visitors.
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