How to prevent images from being copied?

Question

Is there any html code that can prevent an image from being right clicked on and copied? Like copyrighted images, or something similar.

Answer 1

arundirect is correct about the "print screen" option. A watermark is by far the best way to go. If that's not what you're in to.....

Many times users can also open the file in an html editor and copy the image out of that. Another trick is to click-and-drag to highlight an image, then hit CTRL+C to copy without clicking. There are ways to offer some degree of protection against all of these methods, but the "print screen" option can't be defeated. Of course the user doesn't get a true copy of your image, and if you have a high-resolution file, only the user's highest available screen resolution may be captured.

On the upside, many companies use protective measures because it does stop a great deal of unwanted image downloading simply by making it inconvenient in the same way that a car alarm and steering wheel lock make a car less attractive to a thief when there are plenty of unlocked, unprotected cars parked next to it. Just be aware that you may also be harming traffic to your site, if that is a concern.

Answer 2

There is a way around every anti-image-stealing method. But some will limit the theft by not so computer savvy people. There is a quick and dirty fix where you put an image in a table and put transparent image over it. So when somebody right-clicks and tries to save it, they save a transparent image instead of the one they thought they were saving. This article explains it and they even have a little application that generates the code for you: http://javascript.about.com/library/blimgprot.htm (it only works for short paths though, so you might end up editing the code yourself).

Of course they can get around this by going into the code and finding that picture in the table, but that's too much trouble if you ask me.

Disabling right-click only works for people who don't know the Ctrl+U shortcut ( http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex9/noright.htm ). And watermarks only work for people who don't know how to edit images. My favorite is taking a screenshot, which is what I do if I really like an image :-D (yes, I'm guilty).

So, if you combine all these methods, you might eliminate a certain group of people, but if the images are truly worth stealing, there is no way to protect them 100%.

Answer 3

I agree - don't post your pictures - or use the minimal right click protection discussed. I do not copy for reposting or distribution, but I sometimes collect pictures for my notes (like making a model in polymer clay) or for demonstrating an effect and like the people say, there are two methods available to me that work 99% of the time in 2 seconds flat 1. Alt-PrntScrn puts a copy of the current window on the clipboard for pasting in any editing program - it may not be in the exact size or resolution of the original, but is good enough for my purposes. 2. Paint Shop Pro has a screen image capture which allows selecting the exact portion of the screen to capture and drops it back into PSP - same limits on resolution.

Answer 4

I could be wrong, but I don't think there is any way to really prevent someone from taking your images. You could disable the right click to "Save As" to their computer, but then they could just "print screen" and take the image that way. You could put a watermark in the images to make it more undesireable to take, as someone would have to remove the watermark to use the image.

Answer 5

One way is to convert your image in swf file, and putting that in the web page. I have seen sites, which will convert the pic for you and give you .swf file. Let me google it and come back to you.

Answer 6

I think the best and easiest way to protect ur document is to maike a PDF file of it. in the adobe a acrobat editor

Answer 7

its called an"anti right click" there are many different versions of the code.