Protecting images

[Paula]

Is there a built-in way to protect people from copying/pasting images? I know there are ways to do this by adding code, but thought I would check to see if this is something built in.

[Jim]

There is almost no way to protect an image that is on the Internet from being copied. Every image that is loaded in the browser can be saved by one means or another. Some people try to disable the image right click to save but you can usually get around that by viewing the page source or simply saving the html page to your local machine which will save a copy of all the images on the page.

The best thing to do would be to watermark the images so that there is something on the image itself indicating that it belongs to you. Also if it is an image that someone would want to enlarge and print make the resolution of the image low so enlarging and printing would give a grainy picture.

[Paula]

Thanks for the suggestions, Jim. I've watermarked in the past, but that didn't seem to stop other sellers from stealing my photos. I even had one steal photos and paste them on her site with my company name still on them. In a way she was giving me free advertising, but still...

[Jim]

I have a friend who was in a store one day and found their family portrait as a sample picture in a frame that was for sale. It didn't have their names on it but it was kind of shocking to see it hanging on display. I think legally the copyright belongs to the photographer so they can do what they want with the pictures they take.

If you can't keep people from stealing them then next best thing is to at least get some advertising out of it so watermarking would be a good option.

There are services that will track your images for you and file actions against anyone that places one of your images on the web, I don't know how much they charge but if you are really concerned about it you could check into that option.

[Paula]

Thanks, Jim. I have considered watermarking but don't want to take away from the product. I wasn't aware there were services like that, but it is definitely something worth checking in to those. You wouldn't happen to know any names?

I have a friend who was in a store one day and found their family portrait as a sample picture in a frame that was for sale. It didn't have their names on it but it was kind of shocking to see it hanging on display. I think legally the copyright belongs to the photographer so they can do what they want with the pictures they take.

If you can't keep people from stealing them then next best thing is to at least get some advertising out of it so watermarking would be a good option.

There are services that will track your images for you and file actions against anyone that places one of your images on the web, I don't know how much they charge but if you are really concerned about it you could check into that option.