Protecting Thumbnail Images of your Cels

[ginga123]

Is there a way to protect your thumbnail images? I've got a code embedded into my gallery that disables the right-click menu for my larger scans of cels. I was wondering if there is something that can be done? With what? Can the same code be used or is there something different to do? If so, how?:)

[I'm not computer brainiac, sorry. I majored in Word processing software-- English. lol]

I don't like the idea of putting my name on all the smaller images, except if its a specific piece. I think it would spoil the presentation of cels.

[moonrabitt]

Not sure about that....
But even if you do that, the "picture stealer s" could use the "print button"

The "print button" is a button on the KEYBOARD, and it's located at the top right corner. When you click on that button, it takes a SNAP-shot of your screen....Try pressing it so you know what I mean. It does a whole "SAVE-AS" but for the WHOLE screen. They can use this to steal your picks even if you disable the mouse. The code makes it so you can't save the picture, but the "prnt" button saves the WHOLE screen so they can still rip you off......All they have to do after pressing the button is put PASTE on PAINT and they stole it.....

[zerospace]

What are you trying to protect your images from? Because really, right-click disable is very very easy to get around (unless you pair it with disabling the ability to request an image directly from your site's server). The reason I say this is because if you disable right-clicking AND you don't allow direct image requests (e.g. someone typing the direct URL to the image file and loading the image independent of the page), then there's almost no way (short of taking a screenshot) for someone to steal your image.

Probably one of the best things you can do (to protect your large images) is something rubberslug-esque (split the image into pieces and display the pieces). I know that isn't terribly easy to do unless you know a scripting language, but it can be done. I've actually written a php script that does this... if I could make it work independent of my gallery software, you might be able to use it. If anyone is really interested in me doing this, I'll see about getting to it.

[jcaliff]

What are you trying to protect your images from? Because really, right-click disable is very very easy to get around (unless you pair it with disabling the ability to request an image directly from your site's server). The reason I say this is because if you disable right-clicking AND you don't allow direct image requests (e.g. someone typing the direct URL to the image file and loading the image independent of the page), then there's almost no way (short of taking a screenshot) for someone to steal your image.

And even that is really just an annoyance more than anything. When someone downloads a web page to view, the files associated with that webpage are also stored in a temporary internet folder. Sometimes I'll just grab the picture or media file from the temporary storage and copy it to a regular directory. The fact is, there's no way to prevent a determined image stealer from stealing your image, unless you just don't put it on the internet to begin with.

[zerospace]

And even that is really just an annoyance more than anything. When someone downloads a web page to view, the files associated with that webpage are also stored in a temporary internet folder. Sometimes I'll just grab the picture or media file from the temporary storage and copy it to a regular directory. The fact is, there's no way to prevent a determined image stealer from stealing your image, unless you just don't put it on the internet to begin with.

Yep. As I said, probably the only real way is to split the image up into chunks - and even then, someone who really wants it will put it back together in an image editing app. My goal is just to make it more work than image thieves want to do.

[Wendy]

My goal is just to make it more work than image thieves want to do.

Yeah, but the print screen button in combination with a healthy Photoshop edition makes it all very easy again.

[darksuzaku]

just face it. Protections are futile
I mean, if you can view it you can steal it. The most you will acomplish is making more obvious who is stealing.

The only way to protect an image is avoid placing it on internet.

An easy example. My firefox always runs with a plug-in that blocks every script (the famous No-Script plugin). If you allow me to view an HQ scan i'll be able to steal it. And even if you can block that (like forcing the scripts to be enabled to view an image) i can always do the mentioned print screen method.

At the end all these "protection" methods only work to make life of "honest" users harder. Take watermarks..... Someone who really wants to steal your image will be able to bypass it, but at the same time any casual visitor will see a watermark that in most cases will detract value to the scan. The more complex and therefore difficult to remove you make the watermark the more it will detract from the visitors enjoyment of the image.

[evilgordo]

There is no complete solution to image "Appropriation".

As stated above, "where there is a will, there is a way".

Granted, disabling right-click will deter most "save-as" trolls, but it might also make others more determined. This will lead to turning off Javascript in their browser or using Print Screen or mining the temp cache, etc.

As for your specific question, using the script that is on your main image pages does not work when pasted in the thumbnail/Series page for some reason. But you can get the script to work if you host the javascript externally and then reference it with in the page text. I have a working example here.

Btw, the script you're currently using does not work with FireFox, which is the 2nd most common browser with 42% usage...

One last thing about scripting, there are more sophisticated ways to 'protect' your files, but they would require "server-side" languages like PHP, ASP, and the like. AFAIK, they will not work in your current gallery...

Another option for your thumbnails instead of watermarking them, is to crop and/or frame them. Instead of showing the whole cel, just cut out an interesting section, make either abstract or keep it within context. Using all or part of the image, you could make it even smaller and add a decorative frame. Skip the frame, You could even just make them gray-scale...Granted, this is more work, since you will have to individually size and upload the thumb, instead of letting the site make it from the full image.

Just my 2 cents, which may not be anything you haven't heard before ^_^

[EternityOfPain]

Yea.. basically what everyone else said is true.. Not to mention 99% of the time even if right clicking is disabled, etc. The person can always simply click "print screen" paste it in paint and bam...

Only true way to protect images of your cels/sketches are simply not to upload them to begin with lol

[zerospace]

And even watermarking doesn't deter some folks! The clone brush in Photoshop can sometimes make quick work of removing such things. Probably the best thing you can do is use a high jpeg compression that produces a lot of artifacting, making your image less desirable for theft.

Personally, I don't really care if someone steals my images ... I do use an image splitting script, but as it has been pointed out--some folks will still go ahead and steal your images anyways.

darksuzaku -- don't you find that a lot of sites are rendered useless if you disable scripting? With the popularity of AJAX scripting, I would think you'd run into some issues. I know I use little tidbits of javascript here and there, but for the most part I use server-side scripts which can't be browser-disabled.

[darksuzaku]

darksuzaku -- don't you find that a lot of sites are rendered useless if you disable scripting? With the popularity of AJAX scripting, I would think you'd run into some issues. I know I use little tidbits of javascript here and there, but for the most part I use server-side scripts which can't be browser-disabled.

Not that many if you are just browsing. many sites tell you that the sites is not working properly without javascript, but it still works perfectly anyway. For example, sites like animesuki.com, their top menu won't work as expected if you disable javascript. Try to do it and you will see that with javascript disabled all the drop down options appear all listed, so you are not really missing anything.

Anyway, I don't browse that many sites anyway, mostly forums. And i can just go enabling scripts for the sites that i trust (The disabling scripts by default is a good protection for when i'm surfing through new sites.... probably in search of torrents)

[zerospace]

darksuzaku -- don't you find that a lot of sites are rendered useless if you disable scripting? With the popularity of AJAX scripting, I would think you'd run into some issues. I know I use little tidbits of javascript here and there, but for the most part I use server-side scripts which can't be browser-disabled.

Not that many if you are just browsing. many sites tell you that the sites is not working properly without javascript, but it still works perfectly anyway. For example, sites like animesuki.com, their top menu won't work as expected if you disable javascript. Try to do it and you will see that with javascript disabled all the drop down options appear all listed, so you are not really missing anything.

Anyway, I don't browse that many sites anyway, mostly forums. And i can just go enabling scripts for the sites that i trust (The disabling scripts by default is a good protection for when i'm surfing through new sites.... probably in search of torrents)

Interesting. Such sites must be using something else as an alternative to Javascript, even though they warn you. Thanks for the explanation, I was curious since I haven't browsed the web without JS for a very long, long time.