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Block Users from copying and pasting

  1. pinoyathletics
    Member

    With any wordpress upgrades is it possible to block users from copying and pasting my posts. I notice with Blogger my friend after having some of his article plagiarised by another blog has gone to 'Blogger' who offer a means of preventing text from being copied and pasted.

    Although the work around to this is that 'Content Thiefs' could potentially still print screen or re type the information this does make it more time consuming for them to do it which is still a win in my book.
    Blog url: http://pinoyathletics.wordpress.com/

  2. auxclass
    Member

    With any wordpress upgrades is it possible to block users from copying and pasting my posts.

    Don't put it on the internet - if it is displayed on my PC I can copy it

  3. johnnytesting
    Member

    Learn about CopyScape, and how to write DMCA notices. You should also make yourself aware of the copyright laws of your country. This is the relevant part of the American law:

    American Copyright Law
    § 302. Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978
    (a) In General. — Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death.

    Canadian and EU laws are very similar.

    DMCA explained:
    https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca

    DMCA form letter:
    http://labnol.blogspot.ca/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html

    Copyright FAQ's:
    http://www.chillingeffects.org/copyright/faq

  4. pinoyathletics
    Member

    @Johnnytesting: jee wiz thankyou very useful advice. Im not American though lol.

  5. notawoodpecker
    Member

    who offer a means of preventing text from being copied and pasted.

    That's simply not possible. They may employ some method that will frustrate the most novice of users, but any such method can easily be defeated.

    As Aux says, the ONLY way to prevent copying is to not put it on the web.

  6. pinoyathletics
    Member

    Blogger has already got a feature which allows text to not be copied and pasted. My friend has enabled the feature by disabling right-clicking and text selection here

    http://hurdler49.blogspot.com.au/

    Do you mean to say wordpress has nothing similar in place.

    Althought this doesnt prevent copying altogether however it makes it more time consuming for 'content-thiefs' as they would have to retype manually or use a print screen.

  7. auxclass
    Member

    they would have to retype manually or use a print screen.

    Not really - easy to get around right click and no need to do a print screen

  8. notawoodpecker
    Member

    Blogger has already got a feature which allows text to not be copied and pasted. My friend has enabled the feature by disabling right-clicking and text selection here

    Very, very, simple to by-pass. No re-typing necessary.

  9. timethief
    Member

    Blogger has already got a feature which allows text to not be copied and pasted. My friend has enabled the feature by disabling right-clicking and text selection here.

    Ha! ha! I can get around that in seconds flat. Disabling right click which is available on the Monotone or Duotone themes here simply provides a false sense of security. It is so easy to bypass that sort of thing, or simply do a screen capture. Bottom line: If you do not want people taking it, do NOT put it on the web.

  10. johnnytesting
    Member

    Im not American though

    ...okay, so try finding the copyright law for the country you live in... golly jee wiz, I'm sure even the Philippines has one.

    This is what TimeThief has on her blog:
    http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/copyright/

    And she uses CopyScape:
    http://www.copyscape.com/online-plagiarism/

    And, if she found anyone using her work online, she would send out a DMCA notice:
    http://labnol.blogspot.ca/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html

    So there are tools you can use to protect your work, after it has been stolen. But, no, you can't prevent people from taking what you put on online.

  11. timethief
    Member

    @johnnytesting
    Good day to you. There's another tool in BETA I recommend to my followers and it's here > http://www.plagium.com/

  12. timethief
    Member

    Here's the relevant support doc link for preventing content theft > http://en.support.wordpress.com/prevent-content-theft/

    Also note that the copyright law that applies to those who have wordpress.com blogs is American Law as Automattic (owner of WordPress.com) is an American company and we had to agree to the Terms of Service to get an account an blog here. By accessing or using any part of the WordPress.com web site and blogging here, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of the Terms of Service.

  13. johnnytesting
    Member

    Track usage by pasting or typing your original text here, up to 25,000 characters...

    Thanks for the link TT... but there's the question, why can't the blogging platforms do the same? Just incorporate -- or licence -- some of those features, and give us a reasonable shot at protecting the work we provide for them to put ads around.

    The last time I asked Matt about how many people at WP were working on something like this he joked that there were 42. But wanting something like Plagium or Copyscape incorporated into WP / Blogger / Whatever really doesn't seem that weird to me...

    inb4: off topic comments are off topic.

  14. pinoyathletics
    Member

    Thanks Johnny this is a much better response than dont put it on the internet, as the purpose is sharing the content but not having someone else claiming its there work . I think a combination of Johnnytesting upgrade suggestions (as done on blogger) and timethiefs copyright protection suggestions is a good answer.

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    As we've discussed, the Blogger "solution" does not work. You could time me and see how fast it takes me to get around them, and I'm no coder. It'd still be under thirty seconds.

  16. johnnytesting
    Member

    ...secret anti-anti-theft breaker = view page source.

    ...except I'm not suggesting a 'spaceball.gif' option that Flikr uses, or whatever Blogger uses, both of which can be beat with a simple click. I'm suggesting something where, if someone publishes a few hundred words in the identical order I just published, maybe I could get a notice emailed to me so I can take a look. Like a proactive Copyscape.

    Or, you know, something better.

  17. notawoodpecker
    Member

    This same conversation has been going on for at least 10 years that I know of. It was discussed on forums on several sites back around '00 or '01. Despite all of the other advances in the web since then, no one has come up with an effective way to stop C&P, nor do I expect they ever will. Probably because it would cause so many other problems.

    It goes right to the core of how the web works and how content is displayed in browsers.

  18. auxclass
    Member

    And don't forget that text and images are stored in the browser cache on your disk - or entire pages can be saved to disk

  19. johnnytesting
    Member

    ...maybe I'm not using the right emphasis.

    I know we can't stop copy and paste

    But Copyscape and Plagium do something worth doing.

    Even though neither of them are promising to stop copy and paste.

    And being in someone's cache is not stealing or publishing.

    And, yes, the conversation has been going on longer than ten years -- which makes it weird that no one has done anything yet.

  20. auxclass
    Member

    WordPress.COM could always license the technology from Plagium or someplace and make it a paid upgrade for a blog for a nominal fee - then WordPress.COM looks like it is doing something and the Plagium or whoever gets some more money - the configuration could be to exclude the blog it is licensed to from being listed in the results - then have the software crawl on a regular basis ( every 2 to 4 weeks maybe )

  21. raincoaster
    Member

    Oooh, a paid upgrade is a great idea! I bet they'd go for that.

  22. timethief
    Member

    @raincoaster
    I won't take you up on that wager. lol :D

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