Protecting Images and Bandwidth

Linda Cole

December 20, 1999

All those lovely images out there on the web and they're yours for the taking, right? NOT! But, if you want to publish your graphics on the web what can you do about it? Sure, there's some software you can purchase, but who can afford it? Take heart, with cut and paste scripts even the novice can feel safer publishing on the web.

While we're aware that there are ways around these scripts, pointing them out would only add fuel to the fire.

However, the use of these scripts will discourage the casual image filcher and bandwidth bandit. And to ease your mind we add the following thought... If you are selling quality artwork that you have scanned and installed on your website, the result the potential thief gets when they grab your image will not be the high quality graphic that you are selling. Any less than honest person who downloads your image and attempts to print it will not have your image, they will have a poor copy.

The web is a great place to be, so many opportunities, so many potential customers, but you're a little leery about showing off your artwork for fear someone will steal it from you. The truth is, if someone wants to steal an image, they will, and there's not much you can do to stop the determined thief. But you can deter them and you can most certainly put a blight on the uneducated web novice who just happens to think one of your images is way cool.

So what can you do to make life difficult for those people who would do a 'right-click/save as' without giving it a second thought? You say you're not a programmer, you can barely get along with HTML and any type of scripting is beyond you? It's not a problem, you don't have to be a programming genius, or even competent with CGI or JavaScript to include some nifty features on your website. All you really need is some canned scripts and some basic information to implement them. There are two handy little scripts that will go a long way to stave off would-be graphic pirates.

Go ahead and give it a try. Right click on the image to the left and see the script in action! Now take a detour to visit our 'setup' bandit and see what's served up to an outside site!

Protecting Images and Bandwidth

Contents: