[thelist] browserindependent copy protection

[the head lemur]

> I am publishing copyright-protected material over html/http.
> I'm wondering if there is a way to prevent users from copying or saving
> my html-pages or pictures etc  once it is rendered in a browser??

Protecting your Property.
on the WEB? No.

If it shows up on my screen it is mine. period. end of story.
 From digging it out of my cache to screen shots, printing, scanning and
running it through a text recognition program, formatting it as HTML and
re-publishing it just because I have a little free time.

If it is available on the web, shows up in a browser, it is subject to
capture and whatever use I would like.

The whole point behind the web is sharing. No amount of time and effort,
script tricks, or any other method of securing your material will work if it
is accessible by webaddress or renders in a browser.

Protecting your Property.

Yes!
Do Not Post it on the web! Bury it in a box in your backyard.

You did have one part of your question right, the browser independant bit.
Yes!
Provide it in a proprietary medium that requires a proprietary solution to
access it.
This has the advantage of allowing you total control over distribution.
The down side is that you will need to develop a technology that is
unbreakable.
Good Luck!

Protecting your Property.
No.
The movie industry tried it. They failed.
DVD encryption was broken by a couple of kids in Norway. No vast
international conspiracy to deprive Micheal Eisner of his next meal, they
just wanted to watch movies on a linux box.
You can buy a dvd player and watch movies on your computer till the cows
come home.

The music industry tried it. They failed.
They provided music on CD. You can listen to music on your computer. With a
recorder you can make an exact digital copy.

The dead tree publishing industry tried it. They failed. Adobe's E-Book
format was cracked by a russian programmer who is currently in jail in the
US for violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

You can take the work of your favorite author, photographer, television
show, and digitize it. You can convert it into a machine readable format and
publish it.

Should we do this because we can? Of course not.
Will it happen? Yes.
The examples above highlight one important point. If it can be accessed by a
computer, it can be copied, re-formatted, duplicated, re-purposed,
duplicated, sold or given away, and published on the web.

The web is the most important medium for communication since the invention
of moveable type and the first duplication of the written word.
Communication, which is the operative word here.

The web is the worst medium for protecting intellectual property since the
personal computer developed the ability to access other computers.


A quick note on Copyright. In the US, and around the world, among the
signitories to the Berne Conventions and the World Intellectual Property
Organization, Copyright is conferred upon publication in a fixed form.
Webpages are a fixed form.

However to pursue a claim of copyright infringement, there are a number of
steps that need to be taken. A copy of the work must be registered with your
National Copyright Office.
You will need to spend time and money with an attorney who can advise you
where the line between Fair Use and infringement exists in the case of
partial publication or other duplication.
You will also need to have a basic understanding of Plagerism, Libel,
Slander, Trademark infringement, and a few other issues if your materials
mention other people, their works or their companies.

The original purpose of Copyright was to give the creator a LIMITED, yet
exclusive amount of time to profit from their creation, and when that time
expired, to allow the materials to become public domain, affording anybody
the opportunity to access it.

This was created as a method to allow society as a whole the ability to
benefit and create new material, either based on the original material or as
a starting point to move in a new direction.

Because of the web, the browsers ability to render text, images, sounds and
video, the concepts of copyright and intellectual property is undergoing a
profound change, and legislation enacted and being written to cope with the
web is failing, shutting legitimate scientific inquiry down and
criminalizing open exchanges of information.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the United States is a gift to the
Entertainment Pulishing Industries. It is not about creating opportunity for
artists, it is about protecting industries whose stranglehold on creativity
and free expression is shattering.
It is not about helping an artist to make a living at their art, it is about
industries maintaining control over who gets heard, read or seen.

Copyright should be shorter, not longer. The primary reasoning here is that
with the expanded broadcast abilities inherent in all mediums, not just the
web, the overwhelming amount of material being produced, the lower cost of
production and distribution, material has a much shorter shelf life.

Whether this is the quality of the material, the intended audience, the
short attention span of people, or lack of interest, the fact remains that
the opportunity to make money on one's work exists, but not at the expense
of creating artificial barriers to access, and on the Web, doomed to
failure.

the head lemur
Web Standards
http://www.webstandards.org
Evolt
http://www.evolt.org
lemurzone
http://www.lemurzone.com