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Protect Your
Site's Code and Copyright
It's important to protect your site from thieves who would
steal your art, your affiliate link codes or even your hard-written page
content.
Unfortunately, it's all too easy with the VIEW SOURCE
button on most browsers, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 has made the theft
problem even worse.
Jim Barthman, New York Institute of Art Student Advisor and Digital Photography Specialist,
had this to say about Internet Explorer 6's help to thieves, in his article "Copyright
Copywrong":
"Due of the architecture of the Web, not only can my images be seen easily, they can also be "borrowed" easily. Many of you probably already know how to do it. Just right-click on any Web image and a contextual fly-out menu appears offering you the option to copy the image to your computer's hard drive.
"This is a nice feature albeit, in many cases, a serious infringement of copyright law. While many already know about this feature, an equal number don't. That is until now. It seems that Microsoft felt that this "hidden" feature was too valuable to hide anymore. Microsoft's latest incarnation of its popular Web browser software, Internet Explorer 6.0, has changed all that.Now the ability to capture someone else's image is advertised.
 "In 6.0, let your cursor wander over any image on a Web page that's at least 200 x 200 pixels and the new Image toolbar appears.
"The Image toolbar is designed to help you to copy images that may, or may not, belong to you.
"It's fun! It's easy! It's theft?
"Here's how it works:
"You're surfing the Web minding your business, when suddenly the IE Image toolbar appears, reminding you that Explorer could help you "acquire" a copy of the image currently under your cursor.
"Here's the easy part.
"If you click on the first icon in the tool bar (a small disk) the picture is saved by default to the "My Pictures" folder on your Hard drive. That's ironic considering the picture you're copying probably isn't your picture at all. That's OK, according to Microsoft, it is now.
"If you click on the second icon (a small printer) the picture is sent to your printer. It's convenient to be able to print a hard copy of a picture (anyone's picture) you like with a single-click of the mouse.
"If you click on the third icon and your default e-mail program opens with the picture automatically attached as an outgoing e-mail. That way your friends and family can share in your newly found image wealth too.
 "The fourth button on the bar simply opens your "My Pictures" folder. This, I suppose, is designed to let you survey your loot at the end of the day.
"Although the actual features are not new, the automatic appearance of the tool bar begs the user to appropriate images, logos and graphics larger than 200 pixels square. Images that may or may not be copyrighted.
"In 1975, Microsoft was incorporated by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 1976, the two founders began complaining about software piracy. To this day, they haven't stopped grumbling about theft of their product. Now it's my turn. My photographic images are my livelihood. Designing and implementing a browser feature that allows (make that invites) a Web surfer to misappropriate images is wrong.
"Stealing is wrong, whether it's a piece of computer code or a priceless image. I invite Microsoft to argue the necessity of the Image toolbar.
"I did find one way to slow down potential image thieves on my Web site. I started by adding some Javascript code to the images that I want to protect. Javascript is computer language that adds interactivity to your Web pages. The code produces an Alert Box whenever a viewer right clicks an image to copy it. The Alert box not only reminds the viewer that the picture is copyrighted but also includes a "hot" e-mail link to contact me regarding image usage and fees. That's a good start. But despite the fact that I may have inflicted a bit of guilt, thanks to the Image toolbar, my images are still vulnerable.
"So I kept on looking, and soon discovered this ingenious solution. By placing a transparent GIF over my images, the Web browsers Image toolbar would copy the GIF instead of my image.
"So I started by creating a transparent GIF, 16 x 16 pixels in size. I then placed the GIF in a Floating Box. Floating Boxes are part of the DHTML standard that allows you to layer images on a Web page. I then positioned the Floating Box on top of all the pictures I wanted to protect. The proportions of the Floating box were then stretched to equal or slightly exceed the proportions of each image. Now when a viewer attempts to copy my images, they download the transparent GIF instead of my art!
"Just for fun, I attempted to copy some pictures that didn't belong to me. (Sort of a "catch and release" exercise). I visited the Web sites of some famous photographers to see what they may have done to combat the evil IE image toolbar. My informal survey showed that most have done nothing. Almost every site that I went to was vulnerable to this sort of theft. Have we come to accept this? Must we succumb to the negative aspects of the Web just to enjoy its distinct advantages?"
Embed this code in the Header of any page you want to disable the toolbar:
First, insert this Meta tag: <META HTTP-EQUIV="imagetoolbar" CONTENT="no"> between the
<HEAD> and </HEAD> tags at the top of your page. Then, place a
GALLERYIMG="no" attribute into your IMAGE tag.
Be aware, though, that this does not solve the problem entirely.
Make sure you include a copyright notice on every page. At
the bottom of this page you will find an automatically-updating script from
JavaScript.com that goes like this:
<!--BEGIN AUTOMATIC COPYRIGHT
UPDATE-->
</font></font><font
color="#000000" face="Arial"
<center size="2">
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
//Script created by Ronny Drappier, http://sipreal.com
//Visit http://javascriptkit.com for this
script
today=new
Date();
y0=today.getFullYear();
// end hiding --->
</SCRIPT>
Copyright © 2005-<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--- Hide from old browsers
document.write(y0);
// end hiding --->
</SCRIPT>
<!--END AUTOMATIC COPYRIGHT UPDATE-->
In use, it looks like this.
With that said, here are some useful tips and free resources:
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