Protecting copyright in the content-hungry environment of the internet is an issue that frequently taxes web site owners. And none more so than those whose stock in trade is images.
But what can we do to protect our property from the ‘rippers’?
Prominent copyright notices on gallery home pages are essential, but there is one more weapon to help dissuade users from copying images. This is the “no right clicking” warning.
Generated by JavaScript, the dialogue boxes are a further reminder of a site’s determination to safeguard its content. Paste the following script into the relevant page under the body tag.
<script type="text/javascript">
function imageClick()
{
if (event.button==2) {
alert('right clicking is prohibited to protect copyright’ –Add your message here--');
}
}
document.onmousedown= imageClick;
</script>
Although a friendly warning won’t deter the most determined of site visitors, it should serve to discourage the casual opportunist from filching for their own site or printing out high resolution images. It should be noted that this JavaScript won’t disable image bars or work with people who have swapped their mouse button functions around.
