Allowing right-mouse button copying..

but adding the source when pasting.

[vitaplease]

In Brett's "the Mostly Viral Top Traffic Alternatives to Search Engines List" thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

tedster posted a nice idea:

Every article on a site has a "Recycle This Content" button. Clicking takes you to a request for copyright release.

This suggests that you encourage the legal re-use of your article and makes it easy for others to ask for permission.

I was thinking of the following:

I have my own right-mouse button menu, up-until-now, disallowing copying.
"Advanced" users know you can still copy by using the menu-bar, but I still get emails and phone-calls of people asking permission to use my content.

How about adding a special "copy" function in this custom right-mouse-button menu.
If the user presses this "copy" option it adds a link (the source of my page) to the text the user wanted to copy.

I have not figured out how to do this technically. Most probably it would mean leading the visitor to a new page with the selected text/picture and the link to my page which the user is then aloud to copy.

Any other ideas/alternatives and or script suggestions?

I do not mind people using my content as long as they link back to or mention the source..

[Axacta]

>I have my own right-mouse button menu, up-until-now, disallowing copying.
"Advanced" users know you can still copy by using the menu-bar<

vitaplease, I'm afraid I don't have a solution to your question, but what I use to disable copying is a script that prevents selecting anything on the page, thus disabling all copy commands.

function disableselect(e){
return false
}

function reEnable(){
return true
}

//if IE4+
document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false")

//if NS6
if (window.sidebar){
document.onmousedown=disableselect
document.onclick=reEnable
}

<added>

Also, to complete the picture, so to speak, I put the following in the head of any page I don't want printed.

<link rel="alternate" media="print" href="no_printing.htm">

Just make a small page that prints instead (no_printing.htm) that explains your reason, alternatives, etc. Maybe you could adapt this into your solution.

[vitaplease]

Thanks Axacta,

I tried your profile site and it works very well

thou shalt not select!

It even works in Google's cache.

I guess the next step would be to disable "view source"..(any idea?)

Actually I will convert from "no-copy" to "please copy parts but add a link", as soon as I can get something proper set-up.

Another option on right-mouse-click-copy" would be to lead them to a new email message with pre-printed "please allow us to use content from example.com/example.htm"

[Axacta]

vitaplease,

I don't feel the need to go so far as to prevent access to my sorce - at least not yet. But I have toyed with the idea. This is what I have found:

You could try this script, but I am not sure about it - maybe for small sections of text.
[dynamicdrive.com...]

You could also try this one - it also stops using View>Source from the menu.
[cgiscript.net...]

And one more to hide source code even from View>Source.
[mytoowoomba.com...]

I have not tried any of these, so I have no idea how well they work or of any bugs.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Its easy to get around these right click scripts....highlight with left mouse and use CTRL + C to copy......I think most webmasters would use that if they really wanted to steal anything from the site

[Axacta]

Nope - doesn't work with the "no-select" script. But of course, anyone who is absolutely determined to get at your source will eventually find a way. Heck, I find even sites where you need permission that FP will open. I think vitaplease and I are looking more at the casual visitor that is interested in copying some of our content to file. The vast majority of these can be discouraged with these sorts of scripts.

[discod]

You can still use File..Save as..
and get the whole shebang

[Axacta]

Of course. But then you still have to get around the scripts anyway. And for anyone who is determined - they will. But most people won't bother to try after being turned back by the scripts.