Content theft prevention

[deano6410]

I agree with everyone on here, there really is nothing worse than content theft.

My theory is that you cant stop people using it, but as long as they link to the source then i dont mind.

There are 2 methods i am looking into to try and encourage people to link back to me:

1) disable the ability of copying and pasting from my site

2) not allow people to view my source codes.

the right mouse button is a powerful thing when you wish to steal content, the most obvious method is to highlight the text and then click copy and then paste.

But i have seen sights that DONT allow this, i cant remember if dragging the mouse whilst holding down the left mouse button was disabled, or just the ability to bring up the right mouse button menu, but either way it makes copying much tougher for the average user.

I have also seen many sites that dont allow people to view their source codes, again, this is done by the right mouse button menu.

Does anyone know how the above two can be implemented into a site?

Thanks.

[abbeyvet]

It's pointless.

You are right about this:

it makes copying much tougher for the average user.

though of course it makes other, desirable, things more difficult for the average user also - like using right click to open a link in a new window, or go back.

It is also EXTREMELY annoying for the average user.

But the average user doesn't steal your content. Someone who is going to do that will not be in the least concerned by the lack of ability to right click, if they even notice it.

[deano6410]

hmmm,

I agree with your comments, but i didnt realise so many people user right click to go back.

My theory is that a lot of my content will end up on forums, and i doubt any will have links back to me, now if i make it tough for your average forum user to copy n paste, then he/she will have to link to me instead.

I may or may not apply this to my site, but could you tell me how i would go about doing it?

thanks.

[Beagle]

As someone who visits a number of forums, let me just say that if you disable right-clicking in order to force forum posters to link back to your site, be sure to also disallow hotlinking somehow, because that's what most of them will do (especially if the content includes pictures). The people who open the link won't see your site, they'll just use up your bandwidth.

[alika]

We've done this, and it apparently works (though not for long) because we get angry feedbacks as to why we disallow copying of our website content. Unfortunately, we do it via javascript and the content stealers just disable the javascript to enable rightclicking and copy the site.

Is there any other way (aside from putting everything in a members-only subscription page) where we can really prevent people from right clicking and copy the content?

[deano6410]

to be honest i have no problem with people copying it, providing they link to the original source

[alika]

providing they link to the original source

There will be some who will do this, but there will be many more who will simply steal the content without attribution to the source. There's this one site who used an article of ours (an article I wrote), put my name in the byline and retained the description "Staff Writer" -- implying that I am a staff writer of their site, not our site. Not too happy with that.

[cellularnews]

My way of looking at it is that anyone who wants to steal your content will do so - no matter how many technological barriers you use.

You could even output the entire printed content as a static jpeg (using php's GD) which would prevent cut 'n pasting - but it would not stop someone just transcribing the content or using an OCR program to read the text from the image into a text file.

What I do is look at the long term benefits of having "site fans" using my site as a resource to post news snippets on their favourite forums. Most forum users will link to the full article to add credibibilty to their posting anyway.

Why annoy that loyal fan?

The loss of revenue is non-existant frankly.

I keep an eye out for blatent copyright fraud where a competitor publication rips a story - that needs to be stomped on instantly.

However, fair use copying is legal and actually a good way of building site traffic and inbound links, not to mention reader loyalty and brand awareness