Snap, Post, and Lock it!

Reminisce back to elementary school when Dave, the inartistic goon of the first grade, erases your name and puts his name on your finger painting masterpiece. Remember how infuriated you were by this great injustice and how ineffective you were trying to convince Mrs. Martin that those purple trees were created by your hands, literally. If I sound bitter it is probably because I still am. This article is dedicated to all of those people who were scammed out of their artistic creations. Flash forward to the present where there are thousands of Dave’s and claiming your beloved photos is as easy as right clicking the mouse. So don’t allow people to use your pictures on their blogs; get proactive and equip yourself with some protection.

Here are some ways you can fend of the haters.

Set up a no right click script. What this does is when people right clicks your image they either get an error message or they don’t get an option to download at all. Yup, you have just crippled their right click power. However, as easy as it is to set up it is equally easy to overcome. It is a good road block for you to lie down though.

Another method is to watermark your images. Many people do not like to watermark their photos because it reduces the quality of the image since it is a semi –transparent layer on top of your picture. In my mind it is a minor trade off. Watermarking can be done through photoshop and there are plenty of free websites that offer this service.

I have seen many people nowadays go through flash to display their work. Set up a slideshow and they can’t get to it directly. It is also a nice way to showcase your work.

Lastly, you can try to shrink wrap your image. What this does is when someone tries to save your image they actually save a transparent image in its place. This is a really clever JavaScript technique that requires some homework.

Keep in mind that all of these methods can be sidestepped if that person is well versed in coding and is determined. But using these techniques can prevent most thieves from claiming your work.