Any such thing as "uncopyable"?

Is there?

[karmov]

I've gotten a request to post a document in a password protected portion of our site that people wouldn't be able to copy and distribute. Is there any such format or method? My gut tells me no... But I'm hoping that there might be... Even something that sort of does it?

[Pricey]

You can only do so much... make the text into image or PDF, disable right click and put it in a frame so you can't view the source. At the end of the day if someone really wants to copy online content, they will.

Put a disclamer on your site about the content maybe?

Although I found this company claim to do it :o

UNCOPYABLE and UNPRINTABLE web pages (for those worried about website "copying", website "hacking", or website "spamming"..."look but you can't copy or print"). You CANNOT copy or print web pages with this technology applied!

I won't post their URL but use the search term "uncopyable documents online" and they are on the first page. Happy hunting :)

[karmov]

Silly question : How do you diable right-click?

[Paul in South Africa]

You can disable right click by using JavaScript. If you seacrch google for disable right click you will find some that are free to use. In the same results you will also find some articles advising you not to do it. Have a look and make up your own mind ;)

[trillianjedi]

Ultimately people can always do a PrintScreen and grab what they want.

It's a bit like trying to make a real life page that can't be photocopied.

All you really have to rely on are your intellectual property rights.

Javascript may stop the odd thief who doesn't really know what he's doing.

TJ

[StanBo]

No matter what you do with web document, once it hits the user browser it can easily be retrieved by anyone who knows how. All the protective methods used are only efficient against those who have little or no knowledge beyond the right mouseclick. Believe me, such people are many, but "ultimate copy protection" against skilled users does NOT exist.

[mil2k]

You can disable right click by using JavaScript.

File -> Save as

and then open with notepad. As trillianjedi said :-

Javascript may stop the odd thief who doesn't really know what he's doing.

[John_Caius]

It's a bit like trying to make a real life page that can't be photocopied.

I've seen a solution to this problem recently - something along the lines of paper which fluoresces when a bright light shines on it (caveat: I actually have no idea how it works), so the output photocopy is a black sheet of paper. Clever!

[trillianjedi]

John_Caius,

Better get used to not reading my books out in the sun then - sounds painful!

Seriously though, what clever technology - and I thought that my analogy was unbreakable!

TJ

[karmov]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I've explained the situation to the person who made the request and we've come to an agreement that it's ok that it will not be as protected as they'd like. Still though, useful information here. Thanks a lot.

[pixel_juice]

Just a brief addition. If you have content that is particularly sensitive that you are worried about people copying, search for a few sentences of the text (as a phrase) periodically on Google and Alltheweb and you can usually find any infringers pretty quickly. Most people who steal content put it on other web pages, and they will want these pages on the search engines.

[StanBo]

trillianjedi
your analogy is still unbreakable :)
Choose a moment when the sun does not shine at the material copied, don't use a flash, and make an actual photo, if the picture ends up a bit dark - play a bit with photo-editor :)

Than print it-out and you're free to photo-copy it :)))

Anything and everything made publicly available can be copied - it's only an issue of time, resource and creativity.

[DaveN]

if it's on the net, it can be copied end of story, the trick is to catch the them not prevent them.

dave

[StanBo]

You can only catch one who copies info to make it publicly available. But if one grabs it and distributes within the very close community and through different media - that leaves the author without a tangible chance to even notice

[menton]

Hi karmov

I have come across a javascript tool which is easy to use. It disables the viewers ability to select text on the page, and therefore will not be able to copy it. I know that at the end of the day if somebody wants your text they can take it, but I thought that this idea might help you.

I will sticky it to you and anybody else who requests it.

Regards

menton

[choster]

You can set Acrobat Security to disallow printing and copying from PDFs (in fact, I wonder if this is a default setting now as I am constantly having to remind our graphics department to remove the security...). The PDF itself could still be distributed and users would still be able to take screenshots.

If it's something confidential, like court documents, it shouldn't be available over the web in the first place, behind a password or not.

[keyplyr]

To stop ScreenShots, this can be added to the body tag:

onload=setInterval("window.clipboardData.setData('text','')",20)

<disclaimer>
I'm not aware of any other issues this code may cause, so use at own risk
</disclaimer>

[TGecho]

That would really irritate me. Clogging up my clipboard whether or not I planned to copy your text. At the very least make occur when a key is pressed or something. If you must do it at all. Of course, this will still only deter those who don't know what they're doing.

[sharbel]

Anything javascript is so easily defeated by simply turning it off.. By all means use Javascript as part of your solution, but don't use it as your sole solution.

BTW, i agree with what most are saying.. disable all you want, put what you want in frames, if I want it, I will get it. Just try your best to mitigate it, and catch the people who do steal.

[jomaxx]

Actually I think that karmov's original idea is the best - put the document into a password-protected area and control who gets access to the document. If it's practical, doing this will get you 99.9% of the way there. It's the anonymity of the Internet that allows so much copyright theft to occur.

[A_Amin]

Sorry... But what about right click on KEYBOARD I think there must be some JavaScript for that but I don't think that there might be a 100% solution for the problem (Data download). IS THERE?

Regards

Amin