[Web4lib] Image protection

[Robin Hastings]

On Jan 15, 2008 5:33 PM, Robert L. Balliot
<rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> Other than the perceived notion that images are protected
> by copyright and therefore off limits - are there any technological
> methods or procedures to inhibit reproduction of original jpeg
> or gif images on the web? Can anyone recommend a solution?
>
> It is fairly easy to set up a no right click java script command
> and I have thought about watermarks a bit. But watermarks can
> detract for the overall imagery and the script only slows people
> down a bit.
>

Unfortunately, once an image is viewed on a user's computer, it's
already downloaded to their machine and in their possession - you
can't *prevent* the downloading (and use) of that image, since they
had to download it to see it. You can slow them down and make it more
difficult for the casual user to quickly grab the image off of your
pages, but that's about it. The no right-click javascript is one way
to keep most people from casually stealing your images. I remember
hearing about "digimarks" a while back - invisible watermarks that
some software (maybe Photoshop?) could insert into your image before
you upload it to your server. No visible watermarking, but you could
search on the digimark information and find anyone who is using your
images on their websites. I don't know what the current state is on
that technology! Good luck!


-- 
Robin Hastings
robin.hastings at gmail.com
http://www.rhastings.net