Is it impossible to prevent picture theft?

I Simonius

I was just listening to Tim Grey of Microsoft on a Podcast about Adobe Lightroom.

He apparently has an ongoing challenge to anyone that; if they can show him a website which has a good user experience, where he can't steal the image , he will make them a present of all his books past and future.

The point he makes is that for someone knowing what they're doing, no online image is safe from being stolen.

OK - maybe that's true ( I don't know) but if it is, then would it also mean that by setting my gallery preferences to 'no larges' and 'no originals' mean that only the images sizes actually displayed can be stolen , or does it mean that whatever size is uploaded and on the main server is also subject to theft by someone who knows their stuff? (i.e. someone who isn't stymied by the right click disable message)

Also - how expert at online image theft would one have to be to have such a level of expertise? Is it the sort of thing that the average geek knows or only super hackers?

USAIR

I have had friends print out my on line photos...using print screen I suppose.(they are just messing around with me)
I allow large photos on my site.

They 8.5 x 11 and they look pretty good but I would think going any bigger the photos would start to look pretty bad.

I would guess if you post on line then someone could steal your photos.

I don't worry too much about it...maybe I should

Fred

ChrisJ

Simon King wrote:

OK - maybe that's true ( I don't know) but if it is, then would it also mean that by setting my gallery preferences to 'no larges' and 'no originals' mean that only the images sizes actually displayed can be stolen , or does it mean that whatever size is uploaded and on the main server is also subject to theft by someone who knows their stuff? (i.e. someone who isn't stymied by the right click disable message)

Also - how expert at online image theft would one have to be to have such a level of expertise? Is it the sort of thing that the average geek knows or only super hackers?

If you can see the image on screen, then you can capture the image. The little-used "PrtScn" button on your keyboard is all you need 99% of the time (if it's a video, then it may take a bit more effort to save a specific frame). So no, you don't have to be very sophisticated to steal someone's pictures.

If you turn off larges and originals, then only your mediums and thumbnailss should be available. Only if your SmugMug was compromised would someone be able to take the larger versions.

Try out PrtScn. The button itself will copy everything in the current desktop to the clipboard. Alt-PrtScn will only copy the active window (very useful). Then Paste the contents into your favorite program; mspaint is good for a quick test.

claudermilk

The short answer is yes. If the user sees your image they can grab it. Print Screen is one method, the image is also already downloaded into the browser cache--all it takes a a litte knowledge of where to find them & some time to search.

The best defense if keep the image size down and watermark it. Or, of course, don't post it at all.

I Simonius

ChrisJ wrote:

If you can see the image on screen, then you can capture the image. The little-used "PrtScn" button on your keyboard is all you need 99% of the time (if it's a video, then it may take a bit more effort to save a specific frame). So no, you don't have to be very sophisticated to steal someone's pictures.

If you turn off larges and originals, then only your mediums and thumbnailss should be available. Only if your SmugMug was compromised would someone be able to take the larger versions.

Try out PrtScn. The button itself will copy everything in the current desktop to the clipboard. Alt-PrtScn will only copy the active window (very useful). Then Paste the contents into your favorite program; mspaint is good for a quick test.

Im on a mac but I know what you mean, the mac has a similar thing but you can trim to what you want copied

I Simonius

claudermilk wrote:

The short answer is yes. If the user sees your image they can grab it. Print Screen is one method, the image is also already downloaded into the browser cache--all it takes a a litte knowledge of where to find them & some time to search.

The best defense if keep the image size down and watermark it. Or, of course, don't post it at all.

Watermarking the images doesn't look good and is fairly easy to remove in photoshop (easier than going out and aking the shot yourself!)

I guess the only option then is not to post large images?
OR
Is it possible then to only water mark large or orginal sizes?

claudermilk

You can restrict the SM galleries to not show original or large. I only allow originals in specific galleries for specific reasons.

You can make watermarks that aren't obnoxious. Then, when an image shows up without one, that's pretty good proof of knowledgeable theft.