IMAGE THEFT of online hosting sites!

[erin_m1]

Hi, I know alot of you have PRO accounts with the various online

hosting/printing sites. Such as Printroom, PhotoReflect, etc. You

people put in alot of time and energy: editing, color adjusting,

sharpening, etc. all with the hopes that you will be able to sell

pics to customers (wedding, youth sports, etc). I along with you am

in the same boat. I was wondering if you were aware how easy it is

for people to "lift" (aka steal) images directly from these sites.

Some of the sites don't allow you to "right-click~~~~> SAVE AS."

Usually a box pops up that says the image is "copyrighted." But the

next easiest thing and well know is to drag the screen from left to

right and save the image. I posted some pics of my sisters soccer

game on printroom and over dinner she admitted that she lifted some

pics and saved them to her work computer. I really don't care if my

sis lifts pics, she gets free pics anyways. But I am worried about

the other players on the team. I recently posted some baseball

tournament pics online at a fair price. I could tell I got 130 hits

in like 4 days. NOT ONE SALE!!

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this problem. Now before you

jump down my case. Yes I realize that the "lifted" (stolen) image

isn't going to be high resolution (or maybe it could be based on how

large your preview screen is). And the quality of a stolen pic isn't

going to be as good as a $10, 8x10 print. But the fact that they can

grab, save, and view all the FREE images they want. Most of the time

the invisible watermark on the image is not a big distraction.

Meanwhile the lifted prints can be fwd thru e-mail to friends and

family. Wether they buy a print, or they steal them off the web. They

are getting the MEMORIES for free!

 

A few weeks ago I was surfing the web and found this site. I am

currently in the process of having my own web page built. I

definately want this techinque used for my site. This guys technique

is, as far as I can tell IMAGE THEFT RESISTANT!!!

 

http://www.insidersecrets.info/imageprotection.htm

 

Any suggestions, solutions, advice, similiar experiences, etc.

appreciated.

 

Thanks, Erin

[peter_evans4]

<p>Could this be somehow related to <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00D55p&unified_p=1">this thread</a>?</p>

[merlin]

there's really nothing you can do about this about this point. so either don't post images on the web, or we'll just have to deal with it.

[peufeu]

I suppose this guy is using some badly coded javascript which only works in IE, because in Opera I can perfectly do all the stuff he says I can't do, like saving his pics or copying his text.

 

The only solution : the big logo watermark !

[daniel_taylor]

As I said in the other thread...the idiot offering this "insider secret" for sale needs to learn where the print screen key is on his keyboard.

[Jerry_]

Change your watermark to:

 

 

P R O O F © Copyright 2005

Joe Smith Photography

 

 

 

in black 16 point, bold type.

 

 

 

Put it in the middle of each photo you post. Sales may go up and your may not get a increase in orders.

[dave_hoffmann]

You can just drag the photo to your desktop -- BINGO, you've got it. The right-click disable is a joke.

[cfimages]

CTRL-A, CTRL-P and i can print the whole thing.

[phule]

Eric,

 

As Stephen pointed out. Either you want people to look at your photos or you don't. There is no way to prevent someone from looking at your photos online and at the same time preventing them from saving a copy.

 

Get used to it or don't use the web. Those are your only choices. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you a load of bull.

[dai_hunter]

Disable Java and ------ wooooooosh the text can be copied. It can also be copied by "print screen" command and "print page" from the browser.

 

This is... in a word - USELESS

 

Further, in Firefox I can R-click and save images directly even with Java active. As well as read the links to the image locations (url):

 

http://takecharge.hypermart.net/Key%20West%20sunset,%20double%20boats,%20watermark2.jpg

 

http://takecharge.hypermart.net/Cinnamon%20closeup,%20watermark.jpg

 

--------

 

SAVING TEXT EXAMPLE: http://www.insidersecrets.info/imageprotection.htm

 

"Artists, photographers, and other creators of original images face a challenge when they publish their work on the Internet. How hard would it be for someone to just copy your image and print it on to photographic paper and claim it as their own, distribute it, or engage in other unethical activities?

 

(break in text)

 

Now you can protect yourself and keep people from stealing your property.

 

Go ahead ... left click to try to highlight any text in

the body of this page as if you were going to copy (steal) it."

 

How hard is it? Not hard at all! 'Bout as useful as fleas are to a dog.

 

Hunter

[mark_goody]

If the user can see your images, they've already got them on their hard-drive. If it's a clever Flash doohickey, then it'll require a (very) little more effort to get, but it's really not hard.

 

This isn't rocket-science. It's not even clever computer-y type stuff. It's pretty basic.

 

Plus, if a website tries to disable functionality in my browser I'll leave immediately on principle.

 

And what's that site talking about people knowing about hacking? FUD, FUD, FUD.

[david_kelley3]

Online galleries are inherently not secure. Once someone can view an image on a web browser, he/she has a local copy. There's no fool-proof way to keep someone from doing what they want with that image.

[timeforpictures]

I use DotPhoto to sell pictures online. You can upload them yourself with a watermark that says "PROOF" (They have 3 different sizes) OR if you are like me and have thousands of pics of a single tournament, you can send them DVDs with the files and they will upload them to your account for you. They allow you to mark up your prices and they handle shipping, printing, and pay once per month. They also backprint your photos with image & copyright notice. As of now they don't put any copyright on the front of the image (but if you have a low number of images you can do that yourself). All in All, they have a pretty good service.

[clauder]

even if he would find a very clever way of doing this (and this is UTTERLY BAD), you still would have all the files in your temp internet folder... just go there and fetch them!

[dkm]

Sorry to disillusion you, but: any time you see the word <b>"secrets"</b> you can figure it's a marketing ploy just this side of a scam. Secret from newbies, secret from casual observers, but no secret at all from anyone with a clue.<br>

<br>

Sure does make you want to buy, though, doesn't it? :) not ...