| Making it Tougher for Content Thieves |
By Sameer Hasan
I suppose it's a form of flattery. After all, they're
admitting that we are better than them. Better writers,
better thinkers and better communicators.
Of course, we don't really need them to admit it, we're
quite aware we're better than them. So it's small
consolation for those of us who slave day and night to
develop crisp new content for our readers only to have it
stolen. It's a little like having a stranger take your
children and claim them.
Is there nothing we can claim as our own on the Internet? Is
nothing sacred? Are we doomed to be copied and pirated for
as long as we surf the electronic waves? Sadly, no, no and
yes. If someone really wants to rip your content, they can
do it, there are many ways to get around safeguards.
Do I see a silver lining? You betchersweetbippy I do. Why do
copiers copy and rippers rip? Because they follow the
time-honoured tradition of work-avoidance. Slacking,
laziness, sloth, whatever you want to call it, we can use it
to our advantage by making it difficult enough for them to
copy in the hopes that they will move on looking for quicker
prey.
Gosh darn it, we ain't lettin' up without a fight.
***Look But Don't Touch***
One way to keep these lazy looters from copying your content
is by preventing them from selecting or highlighting any
text on your page.
Highlighting is a main ingredient of copy and paste
operations. And by disabling this you can greatly reduce the
amount of pirated content.
Do this simply by adding the following code to your BODY
tag:
onSelectStart="return false;"
or more completely:
This will restrict anyone from highlighting anything on your
web page.
***The Disappearing Act***
Another nifty way to deter piracy is to start your code
about 60 or 70 lines down. When the Paragraph Pirates try
to view your source, they will be greeted with a blank page.
This may keep the less savvy swashbucklers at bay but those
who know what they're doing will be aware of this little
trick. They will laugh in the face of your puny efforts as
they hack and slash at your code and content. Such
injustice!
***I've Been Framed!***
In My Humble Opinion, frames serve to complicate web design
rather than make things easier, but I concede that there is
a time and place for them.
This may be one of those times and places. Actually, it's a
combination of frames and javascript that will accomplish
this goal.
By calling your content pages in a frame, you taking away
the browser's ability to view the source of the content
pages from the 'View-Source' menu in the standard menubar
(it can only see the main page which creates the frames).
However, it is still possible for the CyberCulprit to right
click on the desired framed page and click on view source in
the context menu (or right-click menu) that pops up.
The good news (AND the bad news) is that you can disable the
right-click option. Be warned that it is considered very
bad form by many to disable the right click because it
actually makes it tougher for legitimate surfers to surf
your website by cutting them off from a lot of functions
that are available in the right click menu.
It is true that any of these functions can be accessed
through the main browser menu at the top, but you don't want
to frustrate any potential customer do you? No. But if you
really do think you need to implement this, this is how:
First, in the of your document, type in the
following:
and then just like the anti-highlight, call the function in
your body tag in the following manner:
And voila, no right click.
Use this one at your own risk, personally I recommend not
using it.
***Final Thoughts***
These are only a few ways of deterring content theft, but
make no mistake; there's really nothing you can do if
someone wants to steal your content. Mainly because of the
fundamental way that the Internet works. To view a file,
the browser first downloads it onto your system. So you
have the file somewhere on your system, with all the related
files included. All you have to do is find them. Same goes
for the pirate.
So it's really up to you to weigh the benefits (less people
stealing your stuff) against the costs (potential lost
surfers) and make the decision. Choose wisely.
Sameer Hasan of Webrightnow (http://www.webrightnow.com) is
dedicated to making Web design affordable and accessible to
all those who require it. Sameer holds a degree in
Marketing and Management Information Systems and has been
working with the Web since 1996. He can be reached at
shasan@webrightnow.com
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