Unauthorized Download?

raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
edited July 26, 2009 in SmugMug Support
This is from StatCounter:

http://raebrown.smugmug.com/photos/601398298_EvuTu-L.jpg

Would this be a download - referring to the 4th entry. Site is watermarked with protection turned on.
Rae
Tickled Pixels
Tickled Pixels Blog: "A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"

Comments

  • Cygnus StudiosCygnus Studios Registered Users Posts: 2,294 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    Never seen that kind of thing before. Did you click the link to see what page pops up?

    I found the image on your site, and other than allowing people to view a very large 2X size, I don't see anyway to download it. Right click has the warning, no option of buying that picture, so I have no answer for you, sorry.

    Looks pretty safe on my end.
    Steve

    Website
  • raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    Cygnus Studios wrote:
    Never seen that kind of thing before. Did you click the link to see what page pops up?

    I found the image on your site, and other than allowing people to view a very large 2X size, I don't see anyway to download it. Right click has the warning, no option of buying that picture, so I have no answer for you, sorry.

    Looks pretty safe on my end.

    The link appears to be to the hard drive...goes nowhere when I click on it. I've never seen that kind of url show up on Statcounter stats before and wondered if the viewer found away to actually download the image.
    Rae
    Tickled Pixels
    Tickled Pixels Blog: "    A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,408 moderator
    edited July 25, 2009
    raebrown wrote:
    This is from StatCounter:

    http://raebrown.smugmug.com/photos/601398298_EvuTu-L.jpg

    Would this be a download - referring to the 4th entry. Site is watermarked with protection turned on.
    I'm not sure what StatCounter calls a download, but you should know that right click protection is really not any protection at all.

    You're going to see another download - this one from me. And yes, I just deleted the photo from my computer. Just wanted to follow a hunch.

    Right click protection is only from within your galleries. The photo can still be grabbed if it is shown outside of your galleries. Here's what I did to get around your protection that isn't protection: In addition, if the photo is displayed on a computer it is sitting on that computer (temporarily). A not-too-skilled hacker can easily grab the image from there.

    The good news is that the downloaded photo is watermarked.

    http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security

    --- Denise
    https://www.denisegoldberg.com ... https://denise.smugmug.com

    Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    raebrown wrote:
    This is from StatCounter:

    http://raebrown.smugmug.com/photos/601398298_EvuTu-L.jpg

    Would this be a download - referring to the 4th entry. Site is watermarked with protection turned on.

    It looks like what the user did was save your page to their hard disk, then try to open it from their hard disk. The /E link is statCounter recording a hit from the user's own hard drive. The only way that could happen is if they saved your web page to their hard drive and then tried to open it from there. They probably are trying to grab one of your images. If your images are watermarked, they will only get a watermarked version since that's all that is ever exposed to the web.

    The word "download" is a directory name on their hard drive and has nothing to do with a download.
    --John
    Homepage • Popular
    JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
     Always include a link to your site when posting a question
  • raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    denisegoldberg wrote:
    I'm not sure what StatCounter calls a download, but you should know that right click protection is really not any protection at all.

    You're going to see another download - this one from me. And yes, I just deleted the photo from my computer. Just wanted to follow a hunch.

    Right click protection is only from within your galleries. The photo can still be grabbed if it is shown outside of your galleries. Here's what I did to get around your protection that isn't protection: In addition, if the photo is displayed on a computer it is sitting on that computer (temporarily). A not-too-skilled hacker can easily grab the image from there.

    The good news is that the downloaded photo is watermarked.

    http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security

    --- Denise

    Hi Denise

    I knew that no protection is foolproof and screengrabs are always a possibility. I was more curious than anything as it did appear by the url to be a direct download. I did discover something interesting though...if you enlarge an image and then right click on the size choices (S,M,L,etc.) you appear to circumvent the right click protection. However when I tried downloading I only got the page with no images...that's probably a good thing.
    Rae
    Tickled Pixels
    Tickled Pixels Blog: "    A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"
  • raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    jfriend wrote:
    It looks like what the user did was save your page to their hard disk, then try to open it from their hard disk. The /E link is statCounter recording a hit from the user's own hard drive. The only way that could happen is if they saved your web page to their hard drive and then tried to open it from there. They probably are trying to grab one of your images. If your images are watermarked, they will only get a watermarked version since that's all that is ever exposed to the web.

    The word "download" is a directory name on their hard drive and has nothing to do with a download.

    Thanks John...Always nice to have people interested, hopefully they will get discouraged enough to try through the front door. It was the /E link that had me curious.

    OK, enough computer...back out to enjoy the +30 weather.
    Rae
    Tickled Pixels
    Tickled Pixels Blog: "    A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"
  • thaKingthaKing Registered Users Posts: 478 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    wow, denise went the hard way...using Firefox and noscript, all i have to do is prevent smugmug scripts from running...i can then bypass any and all no right-click rules...
  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited July 25, 2009
    thaKing wrote:
    wow, denise went the hard way...using Firefox and noscript, all i have to do is prevent smugmug scripts from running...i can then bypass any and all no right-click rules...
    That is not actually true. If you turn off scripts, you will not get the warning dialog, but when you right-click save the image, all you'll end up with is a blank GIF image. I'm not saying that right-click protection is much of anything (I can bypass it in about 10 seconds), but it's not done by just turning off scripts.
    --John
    Homepage • Popular
    JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
     Always include a link to your site when posting a question
  • thaKingthaKing Registered Users Posts: 478 Major grins
    edited July 26, 2009
    jfriend wrote:
    That is not actually true. If you turn off scripts, you will not get the warning dialog, but when you right-click save the image, all you'll end up with is a blank GIF image. I'm not saying that right-click protection is much of anything (I can bypass it in about 10 seconds), but it's not done by just turning off scripts.
    you're right...this must've changed in the last year or so...a friend has had a SM account for a while and i showed her last year that turning off scripts i could download her images...just tried it and it doesn't work that way any longer...
  • docwalkerdocwalker Registered Users Posts: 1,867 SmugMug Employee
    edited July 26, 2009
    I have seen this if they are trying to take your site design by using a web page editor. The editor has to save a copy to the local drive in order to get back to it. The other cause I have seen is if they created a desktop icon link to the page.

    But because it is in the downloads folder.... That does look like someone is farming images. So be sure to set your galleries to display sizes smaller than original, turn on protection, and use watermarks...
    SmugMug Support Hero
    http://help.smugmug.com
  • agalliaagallia Registered Users Posts: 541 Major grins
    edited July 26, 2009
    raebrown wrote:
    This is from StatCounter:

    http://raebrown.smugmug.com/photos/601398298_EvuTu-L.jpg

    Would this be a download - referring to the 4th entry. Site is watermarked with protection turned on.
    Hi, Rae. Read the comments on this post. Interesting. A quick question, where did you place the StatCounter code to cover whole site? Thanks.

    P.S. 90+ down here!
    Acadiana Al
    Smugmug: Bayou Oaks Studio
    Blog: Journey to the Light
    "Serendipity...the faculty of making happy, unexpected discoveries by accident." .... Horace Walpole, 1754 (perhaps that 'lucky shot' wasn't really luck at all!)
  • raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
    edited July 26, 2009
    docwalker wrote:
    I have seen this if they are trying to take your site design by using a web page editor. The editor has to save a copy to the local drive in order to get back to it. The other cause I have seen is if they created a desktop icon link to the page.

    But because it is in the downloads folder.... That does look like someone is farming images. So be sure to set your galleries to display sizes smaller than original, turn on protection, and use watermarks...

    I already had the security suggestions in place. In this case they found the image through a google search for 'Victoria Conservatory of Music' which took them directly to the image.
    Rae
    Tickled Pixels
    Tickled Pixels Blog: "    A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"
  • raebrownraebrown Registered Users Posts: 273 Major grins
    edited July 26, 2009
    agallia wrote:
    Hi, Rae. Read the comments on this post. Interesting. A quick question, where did you place the StatCounter code to cover whole site? Thanks.

    P.S. 90+ down here!

    My statcounter code is the last thing in the Custom Footer box. Stay cool!
    Rae
    Tickled Pixels
    Tickled Pixels Blog: "    A walk in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm"
  • agalliaagallia Registered Users Posts: 541 Major grins
    edited July 26, 2009
    raebrown wrote:
    My statcounter code is the last thing in the Custom Footer box. Stay cool!
    Figured that might be best place. Thanks.
    Acadiana Al
    Smugmug: Bayou Oaks Studio
    Blog: Journey to the Light
    "Serendipity...the faculty of making happy, unexpected discoveries by accident." .... Horace Walpole, 1754 (perhaps that 'lucky shot' wasn't really luck at all!)
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