"Please contact me first!"
A pretty regular reader of this blog emailed me today with a mild complaint and a request. He'd noticed that there is some code in the blog template that completely disables the
right-click function. Instead, if you right-click to copy some highlighted text or download a picture or refresh the page, you get a popup box saying "please contact me first" instead. This was an annoyance to him as it frustrated him when trying to quickly copy what he described as my "delicious prose" (flattery gratuitously slipped into a request. clever fellow!) as well as a couple of other web functions.
Others of you have probably been (inadvertantly, on my part) frustrated by the same code. I explained to my reader that the popup is a result of an intentional bit of code I inserted into my template. The purpose is to keep people from downloading pictures (by right-clicking and choosing "save as...") without my permission . As I explained to him, the "delicious prose" I could care less about for the most part, but I am uncomfortable with the way bloggers steal each others' photos willy-nilly without permission or even credit - and with the creativity of some of the photoshoppers out there, I'd also prefer somebody didn't LOLcat one of my pets or edit one of my photos in a way I found disturbing or distasteful. It gives me a small measure of control over my blog content.
So that's the reason for the right-click blocking. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope that most of you - like my email correspondent - understand and forgive the annoyance.
ronnie
Others of you have probably been (inadvertantly, on my part) frustrated by the same code. I explained to my reader that the popup is a result of an intentional bit of code I inserted into my template. The purpose is to keep people from downloading pictures (by right-clicking and choosing "save as...") without my permission . As I explained to him, the "delicious prose" I could care less about for the most part, but I am uncomfortable with the way bloggers steal each others' photos willy-nilly without permission or even credit - and with the creativity of some of the photoshoppers out there, I'd also prefer somebody didn't LOLcat one of my pets or edit one of my photos in a way I found disturbing or distasteful. It gives me a small measure of control over my blog content.
So that's the reason for the right-click blocking. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope that most of you - like my email correspondent - understand and forgive the annoyance.
ronnie
posted by ronnie at
8:00 p.m.
5 Comments:
Ronnie, anyone who wants to take five seconds can get around that code in at least three different ways.
It's the equivalent of posting a notice saying "Please don't take my content." It's advisory, not enforcement.
Disabling JavaScript bypasses the block entirely.
(Just datapointing. It's important when using functions like this to know precisely what they do and do not protect you from, and how difficult they are to circumvent.)
What a churlish request. The cad!
Although the lack of right-clickability does mean that a link can't be opened in a new window.
The other two responses cover anything else that I could add quite nicely.
I was on a site where the image was actually used as the background for a one cell table so that you couldn't right-click and save the image. Right-click/saving resulted in a 1x1 pixel image that was clear. Reading the source code gave the location of the image file and a few seconds later it was mine.
Regards,
Dann
Thanks for the comments. I'm fully aware that the measure is defeatable and that I am merely posting a request (and stopping the easiest way of downloading the pictures). That's why I said it gave me only "a small measure of control".
My hope is that people will either be decent enough not to outright steal the picture as a result of seeing it, or lazy enough not to bother to get around the right-click block.
Ronnie
as i've said before...you canadians! i don't think we do that down here (mad, hysterical laughter)....at least nobody's stolen any of my photos....yet.
what a pain to have to worry about!
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