How easy is it to defeat a copyrighted image

[Acorn]

OK, I may be wasting my time as I know if you can see it in a browser you can copy it.
JavaScripting to block a right-click and copy is very easy to overcome and very frustrating for the end-user who may legitimately want to copy some text from the page.

The following page, https://shared.xara.com/chPPf5WSXN, has an image I have worked on.
It has a copyrighting line of text and a sort or watermark pattern.
You can right-click anywhere but never copy the image.

Now anyone can snip this image but if they used it as there own they would have to remove the copyright else someone might tell on them.

What I am after is what efforts you have to go to remove the notice and the watermark pattern so it seems like an original copy.
You could try mangling the HTML code - try and see where you end up.
I am hoping to see that the effort to rip off an image is time-consuming enough to offer a modicum of protection from theft.

Any resultant uploads should be 1200x760px so I can compare to the original.

I will explain how to make a pattern that could match your site's favicon.

I have been developing a drop-in replacement for existing site images that use Xara's Live Copy. Unfortunately, in doing so I have uncovered a small clutch of issues that scupper that approach; one day, they might be overcome...

Acorn

[Boy]

Seems effective enough. I like the pattern because the viewer can fully evaluate the merits of the picture but it's rendered useless for further use.

[Acorn]

Seems effective enough. I like the pattern because the viewer can fully evaluate the merits of the picture but it's rendered useless for further use.

Thank you Boy.

I'll talk about the pattern in a bit.

I opened the link in MS Edge as my development browser was replaying the cache.
I set the Zoom to 100% to view at the right scale.
I then right-clicked over the image but could not see the normal Save option - this is part of the design.
So, I then just did a Web Capture > Capture Full Page and copied into my XDA.

I then cropped out the edges that were outside the picture and scaled to 1200px wide.
I managed a depth of 760.5px, close, but lost dpi density getting only 91dpi instead of an expected 96dpi.
I tried Capture Area and managed 1200x760px @ 96dpi.
I therefore had something I could hack.
Anyone could try with any browser and Window's Snip.

I then applied some CSS: <style> #lions { filter: blur(1px); } </style>
I had to increment up to a blur of 2.9px to 'remove' the pattern.
Luckily, the image was rather blurry by this point so it would be hard to pass off as anything other than a rip-off.

I tried cloning and a variety of offset transparencies.
I tried Magic Erase and its Cloning - mostly a mess ensued but it did well with the copyright notice.
Colour erase was no better.
All far too time consuming.
If you had the time, you can pixel paint away almost anything.

Ideas?

Acorn

[handrawn]

I am not saying this is practical, but if the star shape outlines could be in some way 'tagged' [simplistically - if they were a very small copyright text] it might be a more rigourous defence if it were ever to come to litigation; but hopefully their very presence would be deterrent enough..

[mwenz]

The original, the so-called pos/neg images as uploaded, are easy enough to get to and, in an image editor, apply the same blend mode you use.

I wouldn't waste the time removing the star shapes nor burned-in copyright notice. In fact, the treatment would be enough to forever skip looking at a site treating images in such a manner. Maybe just me.

[Acorn]

I am not saying this is practical, but if the star shape outlines could be in some way 'tagged' [simplistically - if they were a very small copyright text] it might be a more rigourous defence if it were ever to come to litigation; but hopefully their very presence would be deterrent enough..

handrawn, anything you can put as Black or White in a box will work:



I beleive I have a better solution that this that I will explain presently.

Acorn

[Boy]

handrawn, anything you can put as Black or White in a box will work:



I beleive I have a better solution that this that I will explain presently.

Acorn

We probably have to wait till next year before we get to see it....



(I know, old joke but I couldn't resist it)

[Acorn]

The original, the so-called pos/neg images as uploaded, are easy enough to get to and, in an image editor, apply the same blend mode you use.
I wouldn't waste the time removing the star shapes nor burned-in copyright notice. In fact, the treatment would be enough to forever skip looking at a site treating images in such a manner. Maybe just me.

Mike, I want people to get to the 'so-called' Positive & Negative images; that is the point in that I do not care if they do.
Even if you use an exclusion mix-blend-mode as I did, all you will have achieved is the same presentation with the watermark pattern and the copyright notice.
The CSS for this is simply: <style> .mbm-exclusion { mix-blend-mode: exclusion; } </style>, where you add the special Name, htmlclass="mbm-exclusion", to the top-most image.


There are not many such patterns out there and if you chose a B&W rendering of the site's favicon, even fewer.
A blend still leaves two images unless you are able to combine them in your image editor (flatten layers, I assume).
Many commercial sites watermark their proprietary stock, so why wouldn't a professional photographer or artist?

What I am trying to lead into is a totally flexible approach to improving the security of one's assets.

In working with the Positive & Negative images, my first 'hack' was to make the Black areas transparent.
This removes any coding dependency and allows you to Group and Export as a combined image.
Easy to do in Xara or most image editors.

So far, I have found no clean way to achieve a combined upload that has all of its security markings removed.
I used Krita and a Screen Layer for Positive over the Negative and then Flattened the image.

The copyright notice need not be presented.
The mask can be tuned to blend into the website theme so as not to offend.

Acorn

[Acorn]

We probably have to wait till next year before we get to see it....
(I know, old joke but I couldn't resist it)

OK, I'll keep it for a cliff-hanger... ...

Acorn

[Acorn]

In making any B&W Mask, you need to be able to copy it and invert the two colours.

Here is one approach that turns a small B&W image into a repeating one for the Masks:



It is very quick to scale and rotate the pattern.
Copy and Paste Attributes into the second Mask and flip the colours.
Add a Multiply Transparency to make the White see-through.

Acorn