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Possible Duplicate:
How do I disable right click on my web page?

Say I have this really cool image, I don't want it stolen, I don't want people to view the source code, unfortunately, for some unknown reason, all they have to do is open up web inspector and they have your image, css, html, everything!

Why is there nothing on this?

I don't want to see my very awesome image any where else on the internet.

So I would be very happy if some one could help me with this.

(I know there are people out there with very awesome images, who understand, I just know!)

Cheers ^^

Mithos

EDIT: How have they done it? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/107533178/Screen%20shot%202012-11-02%20at%202.00.10%20PM.png

And here is the link to website:

http://player.hulu.com/embed/myspace_player_v002.swf?pid=50023725&embed=false&partner=MySpace&videoID=107805066&autoplay=true&referrer=http%3a%2f%2fvids.myspace.com%2findex.cfm%3ffuseaction%3dvids.individual%26videoid%3d107805066

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MithosAnnar
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    Only one way: Don't put it on the web – mplungjan Nov 01 '12 at 15:53
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    If your content gets delivered to the client, it is out of your hands. – Matt Nov 01 '12 at 15:54
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    Alternatives: Smaller versions in lower quality with visible and invisible watermarks – mplungjan Nov 01 '12 at 15:54
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    You don't need a code inspector to 'steal' images. A screenshot works just fine. – Kevin Boucher Nov 01 '12 at 15:55
  • mplungjan Theres always more than 1 way :). Matt yes, but you can put a lock on it. Kevin Boucher yes but that is a separate question. robertc Lol no xD I fixed that already. salvador Dall thanks mate, very helpful. – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:07
  • See my later comment and my answer for some of the alternative ways ways. There is NO way to prevent someone from taking your picture. There are SOME ways to later track them down or deter them – mplungjan Nov 01 '12 at 16:09
  • Ok @mplungjan I see, thank you it seems this is harder than just a quick answer. But I can disable some things. I would still like them not to see my source files though... – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:16
  • @MithosAnnar That's just it, you can't put a lock on it. Well, you can, but it's a lock made out of paper. – Matt Nov 01 '12 at 16:39
  • @Matt, so you're saying theres absolutely no way at all? can I embed the image itself and un-embed it when the page loads? – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:53
  • Nope. To show the image, it has to be in the browser. A screen dump will take the image regardless of it being cut into little random pieces and stitched together with JS – mplungjan Nov 01 '12 at 18:07
  • What are you showing? I see a flash movie where they tell me I cannot view the content because I am not in America... That is done on the server with IP detection and then they show that message from inside the flash. If I was fast enough I could take a screenshot – mplungjan Nov 02 '12 at 12:22
  • To the closers: I would not say this is duplicate of a right-click since this is about protecting an image from being stolen. The OP expects a little more vile than just a right-clic, save as. the end answer is the same but the question is not duplicate IMO – mplungjan Nov 02 '12 at 12:30
  • But, they have managed to stop you from viewing the source file via the web inspector, its not the same as the answer, no matter what I do I cannot get that flash movie, because I have no access at all to the web inspector, but how did they do it? How did they stop you from viewing the web inspector? – MithosAnnar Nov 02 '12 at 12:40
  • It is not a web page, it is a flash movie. Remove the query string, hit f12, load the url again and you have the inspector and can see what he is trying to load over the network. https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpadgpstli4vq96/hulu.png No you cannot easily download the flash, and you cannot get at the flash source, but you can record the movie using a screen capture – mplungjan Nov 02 '12 at 12:57
  • Ok, let me try something else... – MithosAnnar Nov 02 '12 at 12:58
  • let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/18969/discussion-between-mplungjan-and-mithosannar) – mplungjan Nov 02 '12 at 13:02

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You can't. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. Maybe make it mildly harder for the clueless.

Consider it this way: If you want your web page to be visible to someone, that person's browser has to download your html, your css, your images, your everything, in order to display the page. Now they've got a complete copy of the page in their browser. NOTHING you can do on the server can prevent this, because then the page wouldn't be visible to begin with.

Marc B
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  • Can I hide everything from within the web inspector somehow? – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:07
  • @MithosAnnar nope, can't hide it from the inspector. Even if you could, someone could just take a screen shot (Alt+Print Screen) – Matt Nov 01 '12 at 16:40
  • @Matt I can stop all alt and shift commands within the window. I can even blank out the screen completely when the cursor leaves the page, I just can't seem to get around the damn inspector! – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:52
  • @mithosannar: you think you can stop alt/shift. try again with javascript disabled in the browser and see how far you can get. Even with it on, Firefox (for one) allows you disable the disabling of special commands (e.g right click) anyways. – Marc B Nov 01 '12 at 17:15
  • These stupid browsers are giving everyone free reign over you're hard work! I am going to try and figure a way around this, maybe by hacking into the persons browser when he goes on my page and not let him show web inspector for my page. - for now however it looks like this is the correct answer :/ so +1 mate for the informative info! Cheers! Mithos – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 17:21
  • sorry, but there is **NO** image in the multiverse that I'd want to see enough to allow joe-random-webmaster modify my browser for. Give it up. You cannot maintain perfect control over anything you put on the web. if it's on the web, it can be stolen. There is absolutely NO way to differentiate between someone viewing an image legitimately and someone viewing to steal. – Marc B Nov 01 '12 at 17:23
  • I really don't like that. I would really love to have control over my web page. Oh Well, looks like i am going to have to disable web inspector the hard way. When someone logs on to my web page I will (somehow) disable they're ability to use web inspector and i tell you what Marc, if I find that there is no way of doing it at all I will right back and say so! Cheers! – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 17:48
  • No need to get at your image via a browser. Good luck stopping a simple CURL from just getting the image without a browser – mplungjan Nov 01 '12 at 18:04
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Here is a discussion from a sibling site: Is watermarking worth it?

And here is a rundown from the most prolific image poster on the web, Trey Ratcliff:

https://plus.google.com/+TreyRatcliff/posts/UTKKo5Su6Rj

Why I Don't Use Watermarks

I get this question a lot, and I know it came up in the live hangout last night. I know my opinion is different than many other photographers, and that is okay.

As you may know, my work is all Creative Commons Non-Commercial. That means people, as long as they give credit and link back to http://www.StuckInCustoms.com , can use my images on their blogs, wallpaper, personal use – anything – as long as it is not used commercially. Every day, I upload a HUGE 6000+ pixel max-resolution image to the Internet. I do not have any fear at all… Believe me, it’s quite liberating living in a world without internet-stealth-fear.

People that want to license our images regularly contact our licensing team – we get many of these every day of the week.

So why don’t I use watermarks? It’s a multi-part philosophy –

  1. Watermarks look ugly. Whenever I look at a photo with a watermark, often times, ALL I can think about is that watermark! It's so distracting. Maybe this is just me.

  2. Legitimate companies do not steal images to use commercially. So I don’t have any logical fear there. *In case of emergency, break glass and see #4

  3. There are other services, like Tineye (and Google) that can help my team easily find bottom-feeders.

  4. We do register our images with the copyright office, so if someone uses an image commercially without a proper license, it is an easy lawsuit.

  5. I don’t have to maintain two versions of each image – one with a watermark and one without.

  6. NOT using watermarks and using creative commons helps more and more people to use your image freely for fun, which increases traffic and builds something I call “internet-trust."

  7. As image search and image recognition get better and better, there will be no need to watermark things. In 1 year+, we'll be able to r-click an image and choose "Google-find the original creator" -- there is a bit trail to first-on-the-internet.

  8. Yes, last, there will be bottom-feeders that steal your stuff. I call this the cost of doing business on the internet. These are the Tic-Tacs that are stolen from the 7-11. It is impossible to maintain 100% of your digital inventory, so wanting "perfection" in your online strategy is an illusion.

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mplungjan
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    Wow there is an actually useful and interesting answer to this question! – vinczemarton Nov 01 '12 at 15:59
  • I agree @mplungjan, but I want to make it hard for them to steal stuff, coming from a hackers background i know how easy it is to take things (make copies of them) – MithosAnnar Nov 01 '12 at 16:11
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You can try a lot of things, like blocking f12 key, blocking right click on in the browser, but this will not prevent people from taking your image if they will want to. Just think for a little bit. If you see a page, that means that you already downloaded it somewhere in you browser's cache.

If your images are really so awesome - go to https://photo.stackexchange.com/ and find out how to get copyrights for your images.

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Salvador Dali
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