Prevent Control C

[TheWizardofInt]

I know this is more HTML than ASP.Net, but is there a way to inhibit the Control C function so that people can't download the text from my web site?

 

Thanks!

[Nerseus]

You can trap window events to handle keystrokes, including stopping Ctrl-C from copying. You'd also have to disable the right-click or they could copy text that way, too.

 

But (big one)! A user can still click File->Save As and then view the source code that way and you can't prevent that.

 

Not to mention if the user can see it, they could type it in exactly the same way themself (though tedious, it would work).

 

I've seen a few websites that now render text as an image - it looks to be happening on the fly, too. That prevents cutting and pasting since there's no text to copy. But it's much slower and would be a lot of network traffic for the image (compared to text). And the user could still type in what they see manually.

 

If you still want some javascript, let me know.

 

-Ner

[Volte]

There's no way to do this anyway -- all you need to do is use Telnet and connect to the site and it will send back the HTML, free for you to copy.

 

If you don't want people to use the text, I wouldn't put it on the internet at all. If you want protection from web-spyders, use images.

[TheWizardofInt]

Thanks for responding. If you could post the javascript, I would really appreciate it

 

I know you can't stop them from a file/save as, but most people don't think of it. I am only looking to make it worth someone's while to spend the $10 to buy the CD

[Volte]

I also might mention, that non-IE browsers such as Opera and Mozilla will probably allow Control-C regardless of JavaScript - I know right-click disablers don't work in Opera and Mozilla.

 

Might I ask what it is that you are trying to stop people from downloading?

[TheWizardofInt]

I have a manual for using GoldSync in GoldMine.

 

I let people read it for free. What I don't want to see is this thing showing up on someone else's web site as their work and creation. A good manual can take days to write, and this one is pretty outstanding.

 

If they want it they can use it from the site or buy it on CD and do what they want with it

[Derek Stone]

Perhaps an Adobe PDF file might be a wiser option?

[TheWizardofInt]

Why? It is every bit as easy to drag and copy a .pdf as it is to copy a web page

[Nerseus]

It sounds like you may just want to secure the website, if you have access. I hear that you want to charge people a fee to view your manual but you don't want them to distribute it. Providing it as a free website means anyone could copy the pages, link directly to it, etc. I'm not sure how you'd even keep Google from crawling the site :)

 

Another option might be to zip up the contents or use a protected PDF with a password. Those paying the fee could be emailed the password. That won't prevent people from copy the manual WITH the password, but it doesn't sound like you want a real robust solution - just something to deter the casual copier.

 

-Ner