Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Protect Images from Download
reid wrote:
> Microsoft (and Apple, and Adobe, etc.) is worried about people getting ahold of their stuff
> and using it in inappropriate and/or illegal ways as well.
Yup, and they go and build hare-braind DRM schemes, and never realize that DRM will fail pretty much by definition.
> Shall we tell them to stop making stuff to try and sell?
I’d rather tell them to fire the people who waste all that time and money on stupid DRM tricks. But in the case in this thread it’s not possible to do that, since the client can’t fire himself. So, if he’s so worried he’s demanding some sort of “security theater” (good phrase, that. Bruce Scheneier came up with it to describe tactics that don’t actually improve security but look like they do, and so make people fell all safe and warm and fuzzy while still leaving them exposed), it’s time to suggest he not have a website.
> Rather than tell him not to have a web site, could we tell him that there are people who will violate long
> established copyright laws, no matter what you do? Just as there are people who will attempt to steal cars,
> no matter what you do?
Could try it, but then the client would probably fire you and hire a fourteen-year-old with a sure-fire no-right-click script. And then everybody loses.
> Short of never taking it out of the locked garage. But I don’t think you’d offer that advice to someone
> worried about car theft. You explain the risks are existent, but minimal, and take whatever prudent
> precautions you can.
I’d rather tell him not to have a website. The point of it is not to actually get him to give up, but rather to make him step back and put things in perspective — would he be willing to drop out of what’s become one of the most important communications media in history, and miss out on the potential business opportunities that medium affords, simply because he’s afraid someone will copy and paste his picture? Of course not. But until you say “OK, then get off the Internet”, clients like this one don’t tend to think in perspective.
You cooin’ with my bird?
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
> ubernostrum wrote:
> The point of it is not to actually get him to give up, but rather to make him step back and put things in perspective — would he be willing to drop out of what’s become one of the most important communications media in history, and miss out on the potential business opportunities that medium affords, simply because he’s afraid someone will copy and paste his picture? Of course not. But until you say “OK, then get off the Internet”, clients like this one don’t tend to think in perspective.
Well, that’s a mighty big clue-by-four to whack a client with, but if they recover from the blow, I guess it might work.
Last edited by reid (2005-09-30 01:32:46)
TextPattern user since 04/04/04
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
I’d rather tell him not to have a website.
I agree whole heartedly. In a way I can relate. I had this same phenomena about a year ago and went this route. It brought my customer back down to earth. She way a wedding photographer and thought her clients would steal their images from her site. Here is someone charging $3000-$12000 for a wedding shoot and thinking that her extremely well off clients are going to go to the trouble to copy/paste a 50k jpg to get out of buying a few reprints. Now with the body building client mentioned above I would simply watermark everything if he thinks they will end up on a perv site. Just slap a watermark in the middle of all of the images in a uniform way so that they blend in and move on to something else. That’s the trade off.
clients like this one don’t tend to think in perspective
And you gotta reign in unreasonable expectations early on.
Jamie
Last edited by soulship (2005-09-30 02:34:22)
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
soulship wrote:
> Here is someone charging $3000-$12000 for a wedding shoot and thinking that her extremely well off
> clients are going to go to the trouble to copy/paste a 50k jpg to get out of buying a few reprints.
Heh. That’s not going to be sustainable much longer, most of the wedding photographers I know these days have moved to raising their fee a bit for the shoot and then assigning rights to the photos to the client. Photographer makes a living, client gets all the prints they want, everybody wins.
You cooin’ with my bird?
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
> ubernostrum wrote:
Heh. That’s not going to be sustainable much longer, most of the wedding photographers I know these days have moved to raising their fee a bit for the shoot and then assigning rights to the photos to the client. Photographer makes a living, client gets all the prints they want, everybody wins.
Another advance of the digital world. Some wedding photographers love the 100% markup they get for delivering a $20 print for $40. I’ve never done weddings, other than for a couple of friends, but I could never see the time and hassle of having prints made as being a very profitable or enjoyable part of business.
The only downside is that some labs have become downright paranoid about printing copyrighted images, even when the client walks in with a written release from the photographer. I’ve had to fax over another one, directly to the lab, in order to calm them enough to do the prints.
TextPattern user since 04/04/04
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
http://www.simplephoto.com/ Is what one of my photographer friends is using now. They host your very own repript server. They handle everything and you still get a hefty print markup. He made an additional 30% to his income last year just from reprints. Super easy to use and he didn’t have to do anything but upload all the images. Pretty sweet.
Offline
#22 2006-01-31 20:03:38
- Andrew
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-02-23
- Posts: 730
Re: Protect Images from Download
Right-click disable has got to be the most annoying, least effective web safeguard of any type. Ever. </$0.02>
Offline
#23 2006-01-31 23:20:33
- NyteOwl
- Member
- From: Nova Scotia, Canada
- Registered: 2005-09-24
- Posts: 539
Re: Protect Images from Download
<blockquote>If you want to protect the images stored on the server and in cache, consider using encrypted images that are displayed in a security applet. I’m surprised the option is not mentioned here because its been available since 1998.</blockquote>
Possibly not mentioned since so many people these days surf the net with Java disabled and often look with suspicion on sites that require its use. The same goes for ActiveX and custom plugins.
As for blocking a local screen capture or printscreen, personally I’d have to see it before I’d believe it.
Last edited by NyteOwl (2006-01-31 23:25:34)
Obsolescence is just a lack of imagination. / 36-bits Forever! / #include <disclaimer.h>;
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
The comments on whether on or not images can be thoroughly protected are a bit lame, excuse me my french – but the best anyone can do is to be as safe as possible. Should I not lock frontdoor? Any thief would get in if he really wanted to. I can only make it more difficult for him. Just an analogy.
For the issue at hand, you can maybe watermark the images with an almost transparant logo across the image. Place it in the lower third part of the image, and let it be horizontal. That is the position that will disturb the viewer as little as possible. And it’s a perfectly legible thing to do if your client has the concerns he has!
Offline
Re: Protect Images from Download
LeeStewart wrote:
I worked on a site where we chopped the image into pieces and served them as 4 separate files, tiled using CSS. Not many people willing to right click and download four sections and stitch them back together with PhotoShop. :)
That’s a good idea. You could also add a copyright notice on the top or bottom of the image and hide it from display by overlaying a div with a non transparent background image. Or alternatively, you could insert the photo as background and overlay a div hiding the notice.
This won’t stop people saving the images of course, but at least they are aware of the fact that the image is copyrighted…
“Bartender, a bit of advice. Always inspect a jukebox carefully.
These machines can be deadly.” — Adam West, the Original Batman
Offline