Image theives

[drink75]

Is there anyway to prevent people from downloading images from my sites? I have seen some sites where you cannont right click of copy text & graphics. Is there an option for this in Actinic?

[Duncan Rounding]

There's a difference between someone copying your pictues off a webpage to someone linking to your pictures on your server.

If you want to stop someone saving your picture from the web page then the best thing to do is visibly mark your images with your website domain name to discourage it. (There's many small free applications around that can do that) You could also add some js to your templates that would pop up a message on right click to say copyrighted or such like. (A quick search on Google will bring up code for this.
If I remember correctly there was also a thread recently in the forum about hotlinking images on your server and possible actions that could be taken.

Duncan R

[completerookie]

its easy to intercept the right click of the mouse and put up a message that says "watch out, there's a theif about" or equivilent, but virtually ALL of those methods simply put off the casual " thief " - what you have to remember is that IE6 caches these very images, and then all you have to do is browse the cached files and you have access to all the pictures without a single right click !

I've also seen concepts (used in the real world) whereby a see-through gif was placed on the top of the image, then when anyone right clicked, saved the image, all they got was a 1px x 1px picture of nothing. - unfortunately, the real picture is still in the cache

Inserting the visible word "copyright" or something else cures some of your problems, but if you put the copyright words on bottom of your picture, what prevents the thief from cutting off the bottom of the pic.

using a good paint programme to put a company logo on top of your pictures and make the logo almost transparant will prevent anyone from using YOUR pictures again and if they do, it will be your logo being shown.

you can put an invisible watermark in the picture, but you then have to go and check every picture on the web to make sure its not one of yours, and even if you do find one, you still have to get it removed.

there is no easy solution

kev

[NVL]

Design your site in flash mate.

At the end of the day the disable right click is a doddle to get around, in the "old days" there used to be a middle button on a meece and all you do is emulate that by clicking the left and right buttons a certain way... which I'll leave you to figure out the next time you are truly bored.

People get really itchy about others using their images, this isn't really a problem unless you have some wonderful stuff going on and very few do, the big deal is bandwidth theft. Get yourself an app to stop hotlinking - to see if you do have this problem already check your web stats / server logs and see where your images are being served to, the app does that for you and tells the server to only serve at yourdomain.com

I personally say who cares - if they want to nick images let them, then every now and again change your HTML and image filenames BUT the fun part is leaving the old image names up there (especially the ones which you know have been hotlinked) and load up a porn image or some insulting thing like an old geezer with no teeth gurning with a slogan stamped on it "our webmaster" or "this site owners wife" in the same dimensions as the original image. The file is now hotlinked to their webpages and is shown on their website, serves them right....

Have fun!

[completerookie]

Image THEFT has just got me wound up in the last TWO hours. - until then, I just replied to this thread like any other thread.

wev'e come across a web site that has BLATENTLY NICKED images from our web site, (ive done a byte by byte comparrison ) then has the CHEEK to offer cut price REPLICAS of the products (£30.00 instead of £80.00) - they even say you can have ONE section (all all sections) if you only want to repair the items.

I KNOW its OUR image, we manufacture the damned thing and no one else does

I've done a bit of investigating,

• The website can be issued with a Cease and Desist letter
  how_to_write_a_cease_and_desist_letter
  
• The Registered owner can be issed with a Cease and Desist letter - see above and also
  Who Owns The Web Site (this also tells you who the ISP is, and then use google to find out if its a member of a group)
• the ISP frequently can be FORCED to remove offending copyright material (frequently the ISP belongs to a group and that group can bring pressure)
  Handling illegal material

For MY company, IMAGE THEFT has led us to truly threatening another web site owner with LEGAL REDRESS - although we haven't actually done that yet, its on the list of things to be done tonight/tomorrow.

I guess the bottom line is,

is it WORTH chasing the thief ? - for us, it WILL BE and we WILL follow it up

kev

[NVL]

Kev,

From personal experience don't waste your time and money as the only person whom benefits from this is the legal firm, been there and done that even via TM / Copyright issues... indeed we have one on the go right now and before the lucky receipients even know it is coming we are four weeks on and £500 in the hole... it will spiral well into the thousands.

The replica market is huge and as you probably know the Chinese are the best at it, you'll never stop them but you can make life hard for them by getting their sites shut down every time you see one and other than that just send a few big lads round to discuss their options which works a hell of alot faster than the standard route.

You'll waste hours of productive time on fighting them - just concentrate on your business, they will make a dent but not a big one.

Keep yer chin up...

[completerookie]

follow your comments,
in this case, its not the chinese or anywhere close, its a process that he, personally, controls in his own UK premises, trouble is, he's advertised it on the web in such a way that we should be able to stop him .

I know of another 6 or so companies (similar market) that he's going to be upsetting, luckily, its a small(ish) community where people know people and we hope to rally sufficient support (they are all selling there's at £80 a pop) to hit him hard within 24-48 hours or so.

He may want to start up again, but I suspect he'll find equally hard nosed people out there ready to jump next time.

In this particular case, for us, it will be worth it.
If he had only come to us BEFORE playing dirty, we would be asking him "what price hundreds" not "what price for one" as it is it will be "one upset company or six?"

appreciate the thoughts though

Yours, still very miffed - Kev

[Jan]

We have had a similar situation, I phoned up the company and asked them politely to remove our graphics, but all they did was ammend them slightly. This particular company basically copied our whole site.

In the end I decided to just ignore them, I did have the option of legal action but decided that I wouldn't gain that much from that.

Regards,

[george]

Have a look at this site...


http://www.fan-products.com/eshop/

[completerookie]

sounds like its a job for the boys then . . .

[AdamL]

post removed by author due to patronising remark.

[wjcampbe]

the sickest most disgusting 800x800 pixel pornagraphic image you can find

I'm sorry, but how can you advise anyone to publish pornography, whatever the reason?

Just an image of text, stating quite plain and simply "I have just been caught stealing again" should be sufficient to convey the message without breaking any laws.

[AdamL]

I'm sorry, but how can you advise anyone to publish pornography, whatever the reason?

Im not advising they publish it, the publishing is done entirerly by the leecher.

[wjcampbe]

Publish - prepare and issue for public distribution or sale;

[AdamL]

Hmm, well sorry for trying to help someone with advise on a problem that works.

drink75 - ignore me, and speak to a lawyer about how to resolve your problems.