How can you prevent someone snatching Photos from your website?

[DierkHaasis]

Originally Posted by Robert Wilde

What's a "transparent gif"? And how do you put it on your website?

GIF is a file format for images with limited colours [at most 256] and support for transparency. One way to put it over an image is using DIVs with CSS, laying one on top of the other [z-ordered]; another is probably using Javascript [not very good as it can be disabled for a site]. Instead of GIF PNG should also work.

Examples can be found in this Kitesurf gallery on the individual image pages. Since I create these galleries with a script [EOS-T by Peter Berger] for iView MediaPro [also available for other programs, incl. JAlbum] I cannot tell you the exact code to implement the transparent GIF.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Originally Posted by DierkHaasis

Examples can be found in this Kitesurf gallery on the individual image pages. Since I create these galleries with a script [EOS-T by Peter Berger] for iView MediaPro [also available for other programs, incl. JAlbum] I cannot tell you the exact code to implement the transparent GIF.

Dierk,

Your Kitesurf gallery exemplifies some of the most elaborate "copy protection" schemes I've ever seen on a web page.

• javascript disables the context menu
• the HTML source is heavily obscured through additional javascript and framesets
• a blank gif picture is composited over the image to interfere with drag-and-drop

Perhaps there's more I overlooked?

Despite all that, it was trivial to circumvent it all.

First, I could easily snag the image data through screen area capture. This feature is built into OS X, although a great many users are unaware of it. (command+shift+ctrl+4 to draw an box around a screen region and copy it to the clipboard) I don't know if there's a true built-in equivalent for Windows at this point, but at this point, on the Mac, if you can see it, you can capture it.

Second, there's an Activity window in Safari that itemizes all the images and other components of whatever web page you're looking at (FireFox has a similar feature). Isolating the jpg file containing the art was simply a matter of locating it in the list and double-clicking.

So, what have all these complicated measures wrought, other than complexity?

• You potentially prevent some number of unknown number of relatively unsophisticated visitors from copying your images?
• You potentially lose photo licensing opportunities because graphic designers have trouble snagging a proxy to test in their project?
• You potentially sleep better at night feeling you've done something proactive against those who would take advantage of you?

[DierkHaasis]

As I wrote before, Martin, these are measures to distract the casual thief, just like policemen in uniform on the streets [back when we had them here or in the UK] helped to make it harder for criminals. Like stealing an apple from the cart; doesn't much help against pro-perpetrators.

Using a screen cap to circumvent paying me for a high-res JPEG or an A4/A3 print should be punishment enough for the thief, don't you think? In my experience people who are going for screen caps aren't interested in the photos.

Personally I find the whole fear of losing business through people stealing from Web sites ridiculous, but then I find people powered by fear ridiculous [yes, that's a political comment, too]. The only way to prevent copyright infringements - aside from taking bad pictures - is to not publish them.

PS: Graphic designers interested in my photos could and should contact me; it's actually easier and quicker than getting the JPG from the Web site for lay-out purposes.