Adding Disable Drag & Selection Feature within Image Admin Area

It would be great to see an additional feature within the image admin area to allow us to Disable Image Drag and Selection, as a simple deterrent to visitors from dragging images to their desktop (which creates an easy accessible copy on a visitor’s computer/device).

I am aware that nothing is ever secure when posted to the net (and to fully protect anyone’s work would not publish to the web in the first place). This can be done via javascripts, and I am aware this can be simply overcome by disabling javascript in the browser settings.

However, this still would offer an added deterrent to regular visitor along with the other great features that ZenPhoto currently offer.

I believe this to simple and an effective deterrent which can be done by adding:

```ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"`

To the <img /> statements that are injected to the html when ZenPhoto dynamically builds pages, if the options within the administration panel, this could easily be added to other gallery and album images.

I believe in most cases when items are not simply accessible most people move on.

Comments

  • Javascript blocks like this are simply too easy to foil. There is even an extensive troubleshooting article on the related right click "issue".

    We have said many times that if you want to protect your images, don't put them on the WEB in the first place. If you want to share them, understand what sharing really means. Your images are in your visitor's local storage the moment he views them and they are easily got from there locally by his desktop file browser.

    You are, of course, always free to add this sort of thing to your theme.
  • I totally agree, as I outlined this is more for a deterrent than actual protection. I am fully aware how easy it is to get images from the computers cache files, and how easy it is to foil, which I thought I had outlined in my post.

    This was simply a recommendation, as not all users of ZenPhoto I would guess are familiar with scripting of templates/themes to make the changes themselves. And would much prefer simple clickable option to enable/disable, rather than playing around with code, that they either not familiar or do not understand (although it is well document within ZenPhoto User Guides).

    Also if this was added within zp-core, it would work across themes regardless. As it’s the core that is building `image` string.

    However I have made my changes and it works for me. I just thought I would offer a suggestion.
  • acrylian Administrator, Developer
    We appreciate suggestions but we will not implement this. The casual user probably does not try to copy images and who really wants to get them finds a way regardless what you do. With this the easiest is to disable javascript to bypass.
  • Mhm, a better way to protect an image is to destroy it in more parts, then load it up in the right way (left to right) and rebuild it with the code. Then a user have to rebuild it, the most of them dont know how to do it right. You can do it also in levels. The question is whether the effort is really worth.
  • acrylian Administrator, Developer
    Yes, and I doubt the effort is really worth it. Also such protection has of course also SEO side effects since people will find your site via search engines and probably not directly anway.
  • Not absolutely, while you use more then one file and every file can get a new tag and so on. So it could maybe better for it?! Its untested, but more informations and so on get a better listing. Ok not in meta or keys ;)
    But if someone search pictures over google and gets just black sreens (backround maybe) or just get a snipped of the searched subject will not visit the page.
  • Anyway, that will do you no good. If the user can see the image in his browser he has a copy of it no matter how you actually built it. If he can't see it, of course there is no problem, but also the site is probably useless.

    The typical way to protect images is to watermark them or embed copyright protective elements, or to make the image quality too low to be of use. Please do not fool yourself into thinking anything else is possible.
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