Protect content from rightclick downloads

How?

[mlalex]

I am a newbie. apologies if the question is basic.

IS there a way to open a link in a framed new window (using target=). This way I thought I can stop that "righclick and save target as". I have some 1500 pages (pdf files) to protect from this.

Pelase help.

[tedster]

All you can do is obstruct the more casual downloads, but you cannot prevent them. In order to display on anyone's monitor, the files must ALREADY be downloaded. So the technically savvy can workaround any obstacles you place in their way.

Disabling right clicks is one of the most upsetting attempts to protect content, because:

1. It still doesn't stop the dedicated thief
2. It does stop those of us who use right click for various navigational tasks. When a website obstructs right click, I'm out of there.

So, while I can appreciate your concern, the only real protection against theft is not to publish at all. In general, if you have content worth protecting, then you must proactively look for abuse and go after each incident.

Even if you lock your PDF documents with password protection, etc, the programs to crack them open are widely available.

[mlalex]

Thanks for the reply ted.

Actually, the scenario is that my index page has only links to these documents. I dont want people to come and just right click and download the whole stuf and cost huge bandwidth losses. rather I would prefer my visitors to go slow on the site.

[rocknbil]

Well just FYI, right-clicking and downloading a file and clicking on it to view use up the same amount of bandwidth.

[Shadowkiller]

rocknbil, what I think he doesn't want people downloading multiple files at a time. You are right though, it isn't any different bandwidth usage wise, since the file has to be downloaded to the users computer to open even if it opens in the browser on not. Also, even if they are downloading multiple files, if they were going to download it anyways, it still uses as much bandwidth as it would to download them seperately.

So you won't be saving any money on transfer if they right or left click your link. If you want to save bandwidth you might want to look into ways of optimizing your PDFs for web use, or use a different format. In my opinion, while PDFs are useful for many things using them on the web isn't one of them. Especially since file size is often a problem with PDFs and people have to download Acrobat Reader just to be able to view the information you want to pass along. Both cases can cause the loss of a potential customer or visitor.

[incrediBILL]

If you want to minimize bandwidth either break the PDFS into section 1, 2, 3 or toss them altogether and break them up into smaller web pages. Most of the time when I do a Google search and it lands on PDF they offer the "view as HTML" which I opt for just because of the faster loading time.

[leliphent]

display it all in flash... Timely and a pain, but if you are concerned with that issue...it should help

[mlalex]

Thanks guys. Problem sorted using a javascript that targets the files into a frame in a new window.

Thank you very much for all the suggessions.