Kryptronic Software Support Forum

gldweb · 02-05-2005 20:10:20

A prospective client of mine that creates custom images in metal is asking to have the images he creates and posts on his site to be somewhat protected from being copied. I have read about using mouseovers and transparent gifs but I was wondering if CCP has any built-in or easily modifiable processes that could prevent the images displayed in the store from being copied.

I realize if someone really whats to get the image there is not much you can do, but I am really looking at stopping the novice users.

Thanks

TheThinker · 02-05-2005 21:04:29

One approach is to put a store logo on the images. Typically with some transparency, over enough of the image that it's difficult to remove the logo. This won't prevent the images from being stolen, but it will reduce the usefulness of the images.

I've written a module that does the above, and I offer it as a service. It also allows the images to be automatically resized for the various CCP sizes (category, product_detail, etc.) and color/contrast corrected, all at the same time, in a batch.

If interested e-mail me at eric.heflin@impartif.com

Big Dave · 02-06-2005 00:24:47

lol

gldweb · 02-06-2005 18:35:48

Big Dave - please explain your lol response. Is it to my question or TheThinkers reply?

Thanks

Todd · 02-06-2005 19:22:55

There is really no way to protect your images as was earlier stated. However, by using watermarks at least you can make the images unusable by others without giving credit to the original owner.

Big Dave · 02-06-2005 23:51:44

gldweb - It had absolutely nothing to do with you, nor your post.

Steven · 02-07-2005 02:31:15

what did it have to do with then?

I know for a fact that the mod that thethinker speaks of is well and truely real because I have it installed on my own webserver

Graham · 02-07-2005 15:09:22

Todd,02/06/2005 07:22:55 PM wrote:
by using watermarks at least you can make the images unusable by others without giving credit to the original owner.

This is what I've done on the large and XL images on my site, they're "spiked" with a ghosted image of my web address across them to make it more difficult for others to pinch them.

I did this after finding another site was using them to plug *their* services! Fortunately their ISP was understanding and the pics got pulled quickly!

JBell · 02-14-2005 12:21:02

A script CAN be written to accomidate protecting images from being downloaded. The script must take the image you have set for the product and use it as the background of a table set to the size of that image. Then, the table must be filled with a clear GIF image. What this does is create a table containing your image, but with a clear image over it. If someone attempts to download the image by right clicking and saving, they download a clear image.

There are programs out that replace an image being "borrowed" from your website. Sites like wwwoverboost.com use such a program for their galleries.

Graham · 02-14-2005 15:03:23

JBell,02/14/2005 12:21:02 PM wrote:
A script CAN be written to accomidate protecting images from being downloaded. [...] If someone attempts to download the image by right clicking and saving, they download a clear image.

Except that if someone does "view source" on the page they can usually find the image name and access it directly.

Also you need to block google's image finding software in robots.txt to stop it archiving your images too.

Steven · 02-14-2005 18:22:41

Watermarking and/or using text/graphic overlays is by far the best way to hinder anyone's attempt to steal your images. If it proves enough for the thief to actually spend more time on the image, then most will give up right here.

There is no other 100% failsafe way of protecting your images. If the image is displayed on the screen, it doesn't nescessarily have to be copied from source, savvy users will simply do a screen print to their favourite imaging software.

An image manipulation mod for ccp51 has been created, and is constantly being enhanced. Please email Eric for further details, and use the functionality of this mod to enhance your all your own images with watermarking and branding capabilities, automatically by pushing a few buttons.

Regards

Steven

TheThinker · 07-03-2005 17:09:16

Steven,02/07/2005 02:31:15 AM wrote:
I know for a fact that the mod that thethinker speaks of is well and truely real because I have it installed on my own webserver

Please see your above quote, Steven, where you clearly stated that the ImageMagick module is installed and working properly on your site.

I think the real issue is that you got "cold feet" when you realized that all of the changes I, and other people, made for you would be lost with a PHP cart such as CCP 6.0. I offer a 2 week bug fix policy, but not a refund policy.

Todd · 07-03-2005 23:10:04

Even if a person cannot easily save an image to their local computer, it really has already been delivered to their computer if its in their browser. So they might be able to pull it out of their cache or possibly do a 'save page as' from their browser.

If all this fails... they can still grab a screenshot of their desktop and get the image that way. One way or another images on the web can be stolen. The reason I like watermarking is that at least it makes the image unusable by others without giving credit to the original owner.

Steven · 07-04-2005 04:09:35

Eric,

Now you are trying to manipulate others into believing that I'm the one with the crooked head?

I had zero intentions of giving up my CCP51 install in favour of an upcoming release while trying to claim back any pending investments. Thats your idea. I abandoned the show when you dropped off regular contact and showed no effort to recify any problems and bugs. You even broke your own promises to fix and enchance the mod. You never reached original specifications. Read my original spec list and you will see right away where you screwed up.

I supported you. Right after you mislead me by marking up your company through 'professional' emails promising backup, regular updates and my very own 'solutions engineer'.

Yes, Eric the mod does work. But it's clumsy, poorly coded and room for a lot of improvement! It wasn't even to spec. I told you this, many times. And my msn chat logs say you agreed to make improvements and finish it properly. I also have emails from you backing this up.

One of the chat logs contain a conversation which took place with you demonstrating how you've managed to have many carts on the one ccp51 install (breaking the license agreement with Kryptronic along the way) .. oh! I'm sorry was that supposed to be confidential?

A portion of the money I'm claiming is money that was 'invested' in an additional mod on the side. This mod never happened and I'm still waiting for my money back. Where is it Eric? You promised me over and over again. Surely you're not doing drugs?

Nick has emailed you (cc:d to myself) to refund the customer. The customer is still waiting!

If these boards is my only contact with you, then so be it. Spill it out and do us all a favour.

Gentlemen, it was wrong of me to pay this guy upfront. But somehow he portrayed himself as trustworthy. He has lied every step of the way.

His CCP license was revoked last year, shortly after he accepted this work. Why wasn't I told?

Steven..

Email me Eric, I'll answer it.

kidsandco · 08-18-2005 10:16:45

Hi

I had a lot of trouble with this aswell, but after alot of searching i found this script that restricts right mouse clicks to copy images. This will at least stop most novice users from "stealing" images from your site!

When someone right mouse clicks anywhere on the page, a box pops up with a custom message, which you can define by editing the code. See below.

Here it is, you just need to paste this code in the head of the "ste_layout.txt" page:

Code:


<script language="Javascript1.2">

////////////// (C) 2003 CodeLifter.com
////////////// Source: CodeLifter.com
////////////// Do not remove this header or edit any other part of the code

////////////// Set the message for the alert box in the inverted commas' below
am = "© 2005 company name";

// do not edit below this line
// ===========================
bV  = parseInt(navigator.appVersion)
bNS = navigator.appName=="Netscape"
bIE = navigator.appName=="Microsoft Internet Explorer"

function nrc(e) {
   if (bNS && e.which > 1){
      alert(am)
      return false
   } else if (bIE && (event.button >1)) {
     alert(am)
     return false;
   }
}

document.onmousedown = nrc;
if (document.layers) window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
if (bNS && bV<5) window.onmousedown = nrc;
</script>

Note: Do not edit any of the code apart from the custom pop-up message unless you know what you are doing, because this could result in a mess

I hope this helps!

kidsandco · 08-18-2005 10:30:19

Hi,

I found something else that protects images from what it looks like, all the methods described here. This is a full software package, but i am not absolutely sure if it works with ccp, maybe someone could have a check?

It's also pretty cheap:

Hope this helps!

webmaster · 08-22-2005 11:17:40

This is just a tool that uses fancy JavaScript and HTML obfuscation (making valid HTML look like junk but still valid). It's no better than simply using JavaScript you write on your own.

rushjc · 09-05-2005 15:57:43

I just applied this to my site and it works great......

Just plug it into the ste_layout.txt at the spot the link above specifies.

The only thing is that it doesn't work on Xtra Large product image popup windows. I'm currently waiting for an answer on this from the forum.

Jeremy

Todd · 09-05-2005 19:32:29

rushjc,09/05/2005 03:57:43 PM wrote:
I just applied this to my site and it works great......

Just plug it into the ste_layout.txt at the spot the link above specifies.

The only thing is that it doesn't work on Xtra Large product image popup windows. I'm currently waiting for an answer on this from the forum.

Jeremy

There are a few reasons why I don't like these kind of solutions. First of all, they really don't work that well. Most people that have the 'know how' to save images will also 'know how' to get around image protection schemes.

Consider why someone might want to take your images in the first place... maybe to use them on their own website?

If a person knows how to build a website... they are likely going to know how to get your images.

Right click protection does extremely little to prevent them from getting your images.

How can they get around it?

Simply do a 'save page as' from the file menu.

or

disable javascript in their browser

or

use Firefox

or

view source and open the image path directly in their browser

or

take a screenshot

or

maybe the easiest way...

hold down the right mouse button -- javascript warning pops up

while holding down the right mouse button just hit the enter key

javascript warning disappears -- release right mouse button and there you have your right click menu anyway.

The biggest reason I think this should not be incorporated into a site is that it completely eliminates the ability for people with left-handed configurations to navigate your site... since their right mouse button is the primarily button.

Its degrades your site more than anything to use this type of javascript protection... and doesn't really protect your images.

I have always held that if a person does not want their images used by others... simply place a semi-transparent watermark across it like most of the large image repositorys around the Internet do. They may steel them still but at least they have to give credit back to the original owner or spend hours in image manipulation software trying to paint out the watermark which can be very troublesome and usually makes the image look worse anyway.

celdirect · 02-24-2006 21:15:31

Hi,

I understand whats been said above and there is no 100% way to protect images - but every little helps.

if someone really wants to they will find a way, if you do what you can to make it harder you could stop 70% or more

The problem i have at the moment is that people are linking to the images on my server (in forums, chat rooms ect) so this is using up alot of my bandwidth.

Is there a way to stop this or limit it?

i heard that one company has a script that for their images that if they are called from there server (but from another site, like a well known acution site) the image is changed to 'this image is stolen'

something like this could help reduce bandwidth - ok they could still take the image but it would be watermarked to they would have to work on it to use it.

any ideas on this?

Cheers
Charlie

;-)

PS found this site that sounds interesting

Big Dave · 02-25-2006 01:26:12

Here. It's called hotlinking, and you can disable it easily.

Graham · 02-25-2006 09:01:00

celdirect,02/24/2006 09:15:31 PM wrote:
The problem i have at the moment is that people are linking to the images on my server (in forums, chat rooms ect) so this is using up alot of my bandwidth.

Is there a way to stop this or limit it?

My images are already "spiked" with my web address ghosted across them (to stop people ripping them off and easily presenting them as their own), but when people started linking to images on my site I just turned it to my advantage!

They were linking to "image.jpg", so I made a copy of it then changed my site so the site pointed to "image_copy.jpg" (meaning ordinary customers just saw the basic item image).

I then modified the original "image.jpg" to leave the image but added an advert and the web address at the bottom so that every time someone used my image in their forum, I got some free advertising

celdirect · 02-25-2006 11:26:23

Thanks to Big Dave and Graham for the pointers there.

I like the idea of getting free advertising

I am in two minds of what to do - its not using too much bandwidth at the mo to be a problem (plus it may be helping with sales)

I guess that stopping hotlinking may cause problems with the images that are shown on froogle (which need to be seen)

time to put me thinking cap on.

cheers
charlie

Kryptronic Software Support Forum

#1 02-05-2005 20:10:20

Image Protection In Ccp51

#2 02-05-2005 21:04:29

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#3 02-06-2005 00:24:47

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#4 02-06-2005 18:35:48

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#5 02-06-2005 19:22:55

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#6 02-06-2005 23:51:44

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#7 02-07-2005 02:31:15

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#8 02-07-2005 15:09:22

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

Todd,02/06/2005 07:22:55 PM wrote:

#9 02-14-2005 12:21:02

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#10 02-14-2005 15:03:23

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

JBell,02/14/2005 12:21:02 PM wrote:

#11 02-14-2005 18:22:41

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#12 07-03-2005 17:09:16

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

Steven,02/07/2005 02:31:15 AM wrote:

#13 07-03-2005 23:10:04

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#14 07-04-2005 04:09:35

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#15 08-18-2005 10:16:45

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

Code:

#16 08-18-2005 10:30:19

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#17 08-22-2005 11:17:40

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#18 09-05-2005 15:57:43

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#19 09-05-2005 19:32:29

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

rushjc,09/05/2005 03:57:43 PM wrote:

#20 02-24-2006 21:15:31

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#21 02-25-2006 01:26:12

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

#22 02-25-2006 09:01:00

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

celdirect,02/24/2006 09:15:31 PM wrote:

#23 02-25-2006 11:26:23

Re: Image Protection In Ccp51

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