As you say, Nick, your JavaScript, while useful, won't fully protect
images on museum websites. I think if anyone who is at all computer
competent sets up a cache with their browser, Netscape or IE, and then
views the page, they can 'harvest' the image from the cache folder, and I
don't think the script would prevent that.
Another protection is to set all images on the web to a resolution of 72
pixels per inch - this is the resolution of the best screen so any higher
resolution will not improve the picture seen by the user. But if they
download and try to print the image it is another story - a very degraded
image would be printed, certainly unuseable for publication. Won't stop
them re-using the image in another website, but that is another problem
altogether!
Bill Pettitt
PS Apologies for accidentally posting my personal reply to Fiona to the
list - I can only plead having been rather under the weather this last
couple of weeks, and not thinking clearly.
>
> I recently attended a Museums Copyright Group meeting at which several
> people expressed concerns about placing images from their museum &
> galleries on the web. It occured to me that there is a fairly simple
> piece of JavaScript (see below) which can be cut and pasted into the
> <head> tags in the HTML of any web page, which will prevent people from
> right-clicking your images and saving them to hard disk. It is currently
> set up to display a simple error message, but you can rewrite this to say
> anything you like. - - -
>
> <script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
>
> function right(e) { if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape' && (e.which == 3
> || e.which == 2)) return false; else if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft
> Internet Explorer' && (event.button == 2 || event.button == 3)) {
> alert("You do not have permission to download from this site."); return
> false; } return true; } document.onmousedown=right; if (document.layers)
> window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN); window.onmousedown=right;
>
> </script>
>
> - - -
>
> This won't completely secure your images, but it will certainly make life
> difficult for anyone who doesn't have permission to download them.
>
> I hope this is useful. I'm sure that people have found alternative
> solutions to this problem. If so, do let me know.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Nick Poole
> Website Manager
> Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries
> 16 Queen Anne's Gate
> London
> SW1H 9AA
>
> Tel 020 7233 4200
> Fax 020 7233 3686
>
> Website: http://www.resource.gov.uk
>
Bill Pettitt
email: [log in to unmask]
(sent from home - tel: 0161-439 2213)
"For every simple problem
there is a complicated solution"
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