Vista made stealing your images easier than ever.

[David Drummond]

For those that still put higher resolution images online, or don't watermark them in some way, Windows Vista has made it simple as pie for anyone to swipe your images now.

Introducing the new Snipping Tool! A little application that comes with even the low end versions of Visa that works just like a cropping tool for your screen. In fact that is exactly what it is. You can take ANYTHING displayed on your screen, and with the tool drag out a little box around it, clip it out and save it.

This means all the little right click disablers, javascript, hidden directories, etc etc etc are now all obsolete and useless.

You're only hope now is to watermark them, or not put them online!

 

[Chad Cowan]

Isn't this the same as the 'Print Screen' button, minus the cropping?

 

[Jarrod Cook]

There is a free program called "Snag-It" that does the same thing as well. Very handy actually (not for stealing photos of course) for taking a screen shot of only a portion of the screen/window.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

You can always take an image, like Chad said, with the PRTSC button; hitting "ctrl v" and pasting the screenshot on the free prepackaged Paint program will let you do all you want for resizing and cropping, as well, but I can't say much for the QUALITY of the shot if a potential thief wishes to do it that way.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

I had been in the habit of covering the primary focus of my shots with my "watermark" like this:

but I had people complain about it being too distracting so I went to this:

I am guessing that if it is anything that is a potential seller or theft item I will return to the former..... I know there are many ways to get pictures but this does make it much easier for the average untrained Joe to grab and use. I guess this will be more important for those of you selling your photos to pay for the outrageous priced gas that it cost you to get out and take the pictures in the first place but it does affect everyone in the end.

BTW. Would it be possible to get the spoiler tags added to the forum? It would come in handy.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I agree that the Snipping Tool may make it a little easier for some to locally save one of your online images, but I'm not sure it took a whole lot of effort before. For web images, there was always the PRNT-SCRN key, and there have been Snipping Tool-like utilities available for free for a while. In addition, a simple right-click, "save as" or "copy" is all it takes for most images on the web to be saved to one's computer. As David noted, though, there were some ways to disable the right-click (i.e. javascript code, the use of Flash players/slideshows, etc), but nothing could work around the PRNT-SCRN key (unless the image was much larger than the resolution of the user's screen!). Of course, the Print Screen and right-click "copy" methods require the user to then paste the image into an image editing software (as simple as MS Paint), after which time the user could crop the watermark from the image. The Snipping Tool streamlines this process quite a bit, but I think that most folks who "steal images" (i.e. remove the copyright and claim it as their own, or at least don't attribute it to the photographer / copyright owner) are capable enough to use crop a copied or PRNT-SCRN'ed image.

Since I'm not too terribly concerned w/ folks stealing my images, I find the Snipping Tool to be a very handy utility. The same streamlining that makes it easier for Joe Sixpack to remove a watermark/copyright mark from an image also makes it much easier for me to grab images of application windows or specific parts of my screen.

 

[David Drummond]

Yeah the print screen worked just as well. You would be surprised how many people out there don't know about it though. This new little tool is right there and just way too handy now as Jeff pointed out.

For the things I use it for, I actually find it quite handy too.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Just as an additional note, I think one picture website (Flickr, I believe) sends a useless image file to someone who right click/saves, so if you're looking for some online storage Flickr at least minimally increases the theft security if you don't have your own space.

In addition, a simple right-click, "save as" or "copy" is all it takes for most images on the web to be saved to one's computer.

 

[David Drummond]

So now we can just few it on flicker, use the clipper tool in vista and now I have it! Theft security increase: ZERO.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

but I had people complain about it being too distracting so I went to this:

I had the same thing, and people complained too. Then one person took several larger images I had like that and completely removed the faint large watermarks I had on them, just to show me it was stupid to place them across the middle. I was impressed they made them vanish as well as they did. No traces of them, and believe me, it would take some serious cloning abilities to do what they did. At that point I just said screw it, put the little ones in the bottom and let whatever happens happen.

 

[Jason Boggs]

What about hiding your copyright on the image? Maybe blending it in so it's very hard to see, but can still be distinguished by zooming in on the image.

EDIT: Sorta like this

Someone claims this is their photo: I had a copyright on the lower right that was plainly visible. They took it off and used it as their own. I call them out on it and they tell me to prove it's mine. I then tell them to zoom in on an area of the image that has my almost invisible copyright symbol on it. BUSTED!!!

Is it a foolproof way to stop idiots from stealing others work? Of course not, but it sure won't hurt.

 

[Mike Deep]

This means all the little right click disablers, javascript, hidden directories, etc etc etc are now all obsolete and useless.

Those never work anyway. Turn JavaScript off or just use Firefox and it doesn't matter. Plus images are stored as easily accessible files in IE's temporary internet files cache.

The snipping tool is too much trouble compared to the above really.

There are extensions for Firefox which could be much more devastating - DownThemAll, anyone?

 

[David Drummond]

My method has been to just roll with the flow. It takes too much effort to shut them down, and no $$ in it unless it's a commercial venture of some sort, in which case it's a while other ball game... but for just around the web, I now stick my URL prominently on EVERYTHING. Let them steal it. If it gets spread around enough, I couldn't afford that kind of advertising anyway.

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

I could easily imagine a stormchaser website with a Monthly subscription rate just to view photos, recent chase logs and photos, video and what not cause that would probably be the only way to keep everyone honest. Monthly rate would include Price for bandwidth (right clicking, viewing, etc) along with Author's desired rate amongst maybe a Flat rate included to allow for people to Save the image for there computer desktop, background.

I can gaurantee that 99% of the people that Right Click, PRNT SCREEN amonst several other methods of obtaining a photo they want for there background have no idea that they are stealing from the Author. Blame this on Microsoft or Macintosh for having the "set as background" and even "save image as" in the Right Click Menu.

I can understand if someone takes an image (right clicks) and claims it as theirs and post's it on another site that there stealing and Infringing the copyright. This is obvious and shouldnt have to happen and I hope that there can be an easier way to prevent this.

I think if you upload your photos to a website you need to keep in mind and accept that People will always have a way to Use your image as there background or be able to save your image to there pc. Like I said earlier, 99% of people would be shocked if the author told them they were stealing.

 

[Anthony Silver]

This means all the little right click disablers, javascript, hidden directories, etc etc etc are now all obsolete and useless.

You're only hope now is to watermark them, or not put them online!

There is one, very effective method for protecting images-display them in macromedia (sp?) flash files!