Protecting images and content

Just An Idea

[chris_f]

I am subscribed to some newsletters which can give some very help SEO and web design tips.

One suggested that to protect your content from people copying and pasting and save images you could place a layer containing a transparent gif over the top of your page.

I was wondering what people thought of this. I know it's not full proof. For instance, your text content is in the source code and your pictures are stored in the computers temporary internet files.

[chris_f]

Still wondering ... ;)

[PsychoTekk]

well as you said, it's still in the cache.
besides that, programs like getbot can explore
a whole website viewing all components (html docs, pics, scriptfiles)
in a tree and allow the user to download any file
but much easier than that - one can just press 'print screen' and
paste the pic into the next image editor.
i don't think there is a way to really protect images...

[SmallTime]

It was mentioned in passing in a thread not too long ago, but I can't find it now.
I would guess it would work, as far as it goes. I would check whether it worked ok in different browsers (particularly for css sites that degrade gracefully), and extensive use may affect brower rendering time, but other than that, sounds ok.
Another question is who are you protecting them from: If other webmasters, young males, or tooth and nail competitors, doubt if it is worth the effort. For the casual surfer, how often do they save images? (other than, em, kitten pictures...) Another possiblitiy to consider is giving them all a distinct style or color, or frame, so that on casual reuse it would be apparent that they were from your site.