boognish
Premium
join:2001-09-26
Baton Rouge, LA
clubs:
| why disable right click?
Why do websites do this? It is really annoying. If I need to change a setting in a media player and want to right click it you just made your website a pain in the ass. If I want to copy something to the clipboard so I can search for it more on google you just made your website a pain in the ass. I know people think they are protecting something, but disabling right click doesn't stop people from downloading your pictures or what ever else you are trying to accomplish. It just makes your website broken.
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We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. |
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Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium
join:2001-06-11
Camarillo, CA | These people think they are stopping people from copying something off their site. That can be the only explainable reason for doing it. And yes, it's very lame and accomplishes nothing.
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Correcting one "looser" at a time. |
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Mospaw
New is good. Old owes me 7k
Hawaiian Jellyfish
join:2001-01-08
The Pacific | reply to boognish
Basically, they don't know any better. Some have been sold a bill of goods by an "expert" while others think that it might actually accomplish something. |
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boognish
Premium
join:2001-09-26
Baton Rouge, LA
clubs:
| reply to boognish
I have just ran into it a couple of times recently. One time I was wanting to change something in windows media player and the other time I was trying to highlight some text to search more on it. It just seems you can make a webpage and write the java script to do this you have to know it isn't going to do any good. I just don't understand why it seems to be be getting popular to do or if I am just stumbling across the pages that do it. It sort of makes you want to steal all their content and mail it to them.
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We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. |
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big greg
Premium,MVM,Ex-Mod 2005-6
join:2003-10-11
Boston, MA
clubs: 
| You can always disable javascript with the web developer add-on (you ARE running Firefox, right?) and this disables all of their "security".
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I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let that vehicle or the personal contents thereof come to harm. |
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Stray Bullet
Dangerous?
Premium
join:2004-04-03
Rochester, NY
| reply to boognish
You can just make a link to reenable it also!
Link name: Enable context menu
Target:
javascript code:javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null)
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Kill With The Best... Or Die Like The Rest...
Critical Damage Incorporated...Visit Us Here! |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| reply to Phil
said by Phil  :These people think they are stopping people from copying something off their site. That can be the only explainable reason for doing it. And yes, it's very lame and accomplishes nothing. Yup. I wrote the webmaster of a site asking why he did this. He said, "so people can't steal pictures". I wrote him back, attaching 4 pictures from his site. He freaked. He asked me what kind of screen capture program I'd used to steal them. I had to explain, "I just used the 'page info' function of my browser and pulled it out of the 'media' section". He decided not to undo the right-click disable because "most people aren't that smart".
Whatever.
-tom
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"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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OZO
Premium
join:2003-01-17
| reply to boognish
I'm using Mouse Rescue add-in for IE to see such pages. But generally I never return back to the offensive web site.
IMHO, it's extremely bad idea for web developer. I have a lot of helpers in my context menu (one of them e.g. is starting Google search) and I need to use them time to time.
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Keep it simple, it'll become complex by itself... |
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A Webmaster
@covad.net
 from:
rec9140
| reply to boognish
As a webmaster who creates quality content, I wish to protect it from the thousands of innocent people who like to copy my useful content and paste entire articles straight into forums and community websites, often without attribution or a link.
Then there are internet users who operate under the mistaken notion that everything on the net is free, and free to use (despite copyright notices in the page footer), and think it's perfectly ok to steal content and re-use it on their own websites.
While it's fair use to use a snippet, it's theft to take the entire article.
While I understand that this doesn't stop the millions of scraper bots that burn through gigs of bandwidth (yes, gigabytes) of content and re-use it on their own pages, a no-right click script is effective for the grandma's and grandpa's who are otherwise stealing my content.
Why is there concern for content theft?
Content theft leads to lower income when search engines devalue the original source of the content. I know of one site owner whose content was ripped and submitted to a travel wiki that operated under a creative commons license. Afterward, hundreds of other sites began using that same content on their own, while attributing the travel wiki (as per the CC license), as the source of the content.
On another occassion, some of my content was stolen and submitted to an article directory. Hundreds of site operators who needed content used that content from the article directory, giving attribution and links to the so-called author of the site. I noticed this was happening after a precipitous drop in income that was costing me thousands of dollars of lost revenue.
There is a good reason why a webmaster would disable the right click. It's not done lightly or to piss off their users or inconvenience them. My decision to disable right click was a business decision that was made easier knowing that there was no legitimate reason for anyone to right-click on my web page. If someone wants to cite my web page on a forum, they can simply link to it.
So while some of you have a legitimate gripe, I think the rest of you have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and are whining about something that doesn't even affect you. |
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insomx
Premium
join:2003-01-26
Canada
·Aliant Communicati..
| DO you really think disabling right click will help you? Ever hear of "View source"? I'm sorry, but you don't deserve to be a webmaster.
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»monctonhigh.ca
"What is wrong with all the people that say what is wrong with people?" -John Crawford |
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HRM
God Bless America
Premium,MVM
join:2002-02-03
Darien, CT
clubs:
| reply to boognish
I noticed my logitec mouseware will copy anything highlighted even with the right click disabled. I never steal content, but sometimes like to google things. It does mean I have to open google manually, but is still is faster and easier than copying a difficlut name or phrase.
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Unlock'em,lap'em,Hang'em on the wall |
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rjackson
Premium,Mod
join:2002-04-02
Ringgold, GA
clubs:
Host:
SMC Networks
Automotive
VOIP Tech Chat
ViaTalk
Teleblend
3 edits | reply to A Webmaster
said by A Webmaster :
Then there are internet users who operate under the mistaken notion that everything on the net is free, and free to use (despite copyright notices in the page footer), and think it's perfectly ok to steal content and re-use it on their own websites.
There are also internet users who operate under the correct notion that they are not thieves and they like to right-click in order to use their browser like they want to, and I bet this number far outweighs those who would be deterred by a simple JavaScript trick. Besides, one does not need to view source in order to copy content, they can simply select it straight from the presented page itself - something you can't prevent anyways.
Sometimes I like to select a keyword on a page, right-click and "Search in Google" - is this theft by your definition? Why would you wish to prevent that?
said by A Webmaster :
There is a good reason why a webmaster would disable the right click. It's not done lightly or to piss off their users or inconvenience them. My decision to disable right click was a business decision that was made easier knowing that there was no legitimate reason for anyone to right-click on my web page. If someone wants to cite my web page on a forum, they can simply link to it. That's not a good reason to disable right-click, in fact that's the worst reason to do so. People who are dishonest enough to steal content are going to do so anyways, regardless of what you disable, much the same way a thief will break into someone else's property by busting through a window. If you're going to publish content, you're going to have to accept the risk that it might be stolen.
All you're doing is annoying the honest visitors who do have a "right" to their right-click. The context menu is good for moving back and forth through the browser history, reloading, viewing links in new windows or tabs, and more. Not to mention the fact that you can still "view source" by many, many, many other means besides right clicking. You can't disable a keyboard combination, and you can't disable application menus - so why bother with the context menu? Plus, JavaScript is client-side and can easily be turned off or disabled by the user, and many do frequently anyways.
If you're toiling under the misconception that disabling the right-click menu is effective against content theft, you're either not informed well on how JavaScript, browsers, and the web really works, or you're seriously misunderstanding your visitors. When you treat people like morons, they tend to get mad about it. |
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JAAulde
yum yum yum yum yum
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-09
Hagerstown, MD
| reply to A Webmaster
said by A Webmaster :
...no legitimate reason for anyone to right-click on my web page.
So you're second guessing the browser vendors who build context menus into their products? By turning off right click, you stop the ability to do many things legitimate like:
1) open a link in a new tab in Fx
2) navigate the history from context menu
3) reload the page from the context menu
4) reload just a specific frame within the page in Fx
5) bookmark the page from context menu
6) email a link to the page to someone else directly from the context menu in Fx
7) access to Fx extensions with context menu options
Get real man. To 'protect' your precious content you break the browser all the while still leaving your content available to anyone who really wants it.
As has been said before, we should all be so lucky as to be able to come with something people would actually want to 'steal'.
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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
--Benjamin Franklin
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Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| reply to boognish
I have never encountered this because I have all scripting turned off by default and only allowed in my trusted sites zone. So any web site I go to I can right click away regardless of what the so called web master thinks he is doing.
He needs a script to turn off right click and if you don't have scripting on then his efforts are ineffective. |
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A webmaster
@covad.net
| reply to JAAulde
>>>People who are dishonest enough to steal content are going to do so anyways, regardless of what you disable
>>>DO you really think disabling right click will help you? Ever hear of "View source"?
Absolutely, I agree 100%. Re-read my post, I never claimed it was a cure-all to my problems with content theft.
I have no illusions, Which is why I said, "a no-right click script is effective for the grandma's and grandpa's who are otherwise stealing my content..."
The no-right click will only stop the least internet savvy and the lazy, which believe it or not are a real problem. As for scraper bots and those who are intent on stealing, I have to rely on notifying them that I can and will send DMCA notices to their Domain Name Registrar, Web host, Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This usually works, but in some cases I have filed the DMCA with positive results.
quote:
The context menu is good for moving back and forth through the browser history, reloading, viewing links in new windows or tabs, and more.
Most people do no do that, so I don't really care. Those users who don't like it can blow away; I don't need repeat visitors. All I need is for someone to click on my ads and leave my website. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| reply to insomx
said by insomx :DO you really think disabling right click will help you? Ever hear of "View source"? I'm sorry, but you don't deserve to be a webmaster. I'm sure it was a "business decision" that prompted him to post anonymously (knowing that any clued people looking for webmaster services would use his post as a valid reason for DQ'ing him).
-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis |
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BIGMIKE
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Westminster, CA
| reply to JAAulde
said by JAAulde :said by A Webmaster :
...no legitimate reason for anyone to right-click on my web page.
So you're second guessing the browser vendors who build context menus into their products? By turning off right click, you stop the ability to do many things legitimate like: 1) open a link in a new tab in Fx 2) navigate the history from context menu 3) reload the page from the context menu 4) reload just a specific frame within the page in Fx 5) bookmark the page from context menu 6) email a link to the page to someone else directly from the context menu in Fx 7) access to Fx extensions with context menu options Get real man. To 'protect' your precious content you break the browser all the while still leaving your content available to anyone who really wants it. As has been said before, we should all be so lucky as to be able to come with something people would actually want to 'steal'. 8) HELP Read™ is a clipboard reader
HELP Read™ is FREE software that reads along with you while you do the reading. »www.helpread.com/
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Type "miserable failure" in Google |
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A webmaster
@covad.net
| reply to nixen
>>>knowing that any clued people looking for webmaster services would use his post as a valid reason for DQ'ing him
Ha, ha. I don't offer webmaster services. That's small time. I run my own sites and am independent of clients.
I've been a lurker in this site since around July or August of 2000, when I obtained DSL. But I don't participate in this forum because I'm not in the DSL business, and I only come here for the news stories.
But this post intrigued me because it's close to home. The rest of you are obviously not in my shoes, so I am here to give you the story from the other side of the fence. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA | said by A webmaster :
Ha, ha. I don't offer webmaster services. That's small time. I run my own sites and am independent of clients. Ah: porn site operator.
-tom |
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rjackson
Premium,Mod
join:2002-04-02
Ringgold, GA
clubs:
Host:
SMC Networks
Automotive
VOIP Tech Chat
ViaTalk
Teleblend
1 edit | reply to A webmaster
said by A webmaster :
But this post intrigued me because it's close to home. The rest of you are obviously not in my shoes, so I am here to give you the story from the other side of the fence.
You don't think a forum called Webmasters and Developers would be full of webmasters? 
Sorry, but you're still in the stark minority here. I'm a web developer too and I would never do anything that interferes with the user's browsing experience. That goes for right-click menus, resizing windows, popups, scrollbar colors, strange cursors, background music, and more.
It sounds to me like you're just in it for the ad revenue, which means you really don't care about your visitors anyways. On that I can guarantee that most of us here are not in your shoes. |
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