While image theft has not big a big issue with our sites I thought that you would like this creative way of dealing with it.

When you identify an image theft theough your logs (referrer file) you just do the following:

1. Copy the original image

2. Rename the original and reassign it within your page that it resides

3. Change the original copy to include the name of your website BOLD over the image or just create an all new image.

4. Upload the new image to your site using the same name and path as the original (before step 2).

Then go look at the site that was stealing the image. It now will be showing your NEW image in its place.

Here is an example:


http://www.afterdark.it/...splay;num=1026728492

This was a picture of the new Ducati MotoGP bike. Now it is all black with MotorcycleIndustry.com over it.

I figure that if someone is going to take an image you might as well get some advertising out of it!

Nice one Brian!

I think I will adopt your methods for my upcoming grahpic design site.

Interesting avtar that the theif is using BTW


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

It is almost too bad that there can't be a program that rotates the images names on a regular basis like:

Week one:

Real Image = 122345.jpg

Week 2:

Real Image = 122346.jpg

and fake image = 122345.jpg

This way you don't have to worry about images being taken. They would just take it for a week then it becomes advertising for your site!

I am sure this is... maybe something on hotscripts?


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

You can do it automatically with apache rewrites....no need to rename your images, you just tell apache to send back a different image if the referer does not have your website's URL in it :)

eg....

You have this in your webpage...

<img src="/images/foo.gif">

....someone links to:

<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/images/foo.gif">

....their referer will be www.theirdomain.com and not www.yourdomain.com, so with a re-wriite, apache will spot that and send back a porn image or whatever you fancy :) "Stolen from mysite.com"

I'll try to find the code.

Ooo, that sounds nice indeed!


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Alright Paul!

OK, I'll turn you into a King then (no not a dog named king).

<<<<POOF>>>>>

You are now the King of Image Piracy Security

Ahh...But what if you are HOSTING images for other sites as well?



edit:If you use /imagename.jpg on your own site and give http://www.yoursite.com/imagename/jpg to sites that you are hosting an image for would that be a work around?

As Paul points out, Rewrite is the better path to take. It's what I use. For example:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !stolen.gif
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://([a-z0-9-]+\.)*your-domain.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule /* http://www.yourdomain.com/images/stolen.gif [L,R]

But you should be able to edit the RewriteRule to point to a script that outputs a random image - mind you, greater overhead on server.



Cheers - Dan

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

Rewrite is definitely better. You can also take advantage of the RewriteMap directive to serve up a watermarked version of your image... if you're feeling especially dastardly maybe even set it up so that the first 1-3 hits are normal and then your site logo is smeared all over the image

Here's an additional tutorial on how to setup your server to deny off-site ref's of your images (if Dan's example wasn't enough )

http://www.livejournal.com/...qbrowse.bml?faqid=73

Hey Aki,

The issue I see with that method is the following:

a. If you serve banner images for other sites

b. If you have a Linkshare or CJ Affiliate program

Both of these will be hindered by making this a "global" watchdog rather than a specific issue control.

Then of course the other item is NT rather than Apache.

Any ideas?

Sigh, there's always one

Not sure about IIS, but it's very easy to set certain parts of your URL system to be accessed from other sites. I just recently setup a site so that all images except for those found in /banners/ are blocked. Since rewrite relies on regex's you can even set it up so that any image outside of the banners filesystem with the prefix "exportable_" can still be linked from an offsite source.

I'm the wrong person for IIS though, I still had problems getting links to run on IIS (turns out it was ACL permissions on perl.exe...)

I can't get either of those rewrites to work grrrr :(

ah the ol' IIS permissions thing!

Yes NT is a bit more tricky but I will say once it is set up it is a rock!

I like the idea of placing everything for export in a file for it but I still come back to the same issue (the original post) which is that there really is no way to automate the image switch (rotation). While what you have said along with others is very do-able on the ol' Penguin it still falls short of being friendly for the Linkshare, CJ and served banner issues. It just so happens that NT exacerbates the condition.

But I can live with that especially considering the fact that MS OS is again gaining momentum and that the black and white developers are falling like flies buzzing around no pest strips. It is only a matter of time before MS OS takes back the #1 position on servers (as well as maintaining its #1 status on PC's and office networks). (I know these comments will bring out the angry Penguins quoting all the Unix biased OS tracking systems. LOL.)

I have fun being one of a few on the "this" forum that uses NT. Keeps everyone on their toes when developing. LOL

Ok I take that back...all my images just went on vacation ...however the direct linking didn't prevent me from seeing the image (ie when the referer was blank) even though I had:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

RewriteLog might be a handy directive to turn on when you're playing with rewrite. I've used it a few times and it prints reams of useful information.

Hi Paul:

In my Rewrite example, that line defines that if no referer passed, the image displays. I added it to compensate for web beasties like firewalls that are often configured (usually by default as is the case with Nortons) for maximum privacy such that referer is not passed. So in my example, calling the image directly (i.e., typing in the URL to the image in the browser address bar) will pull the image. I see one downside in that javascript-based image pulls may not pass referer so this may be one means to defeat the Rewrite.



Cheers - Dan

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

Ah yeah I always forget that....ooo RewriteLogLevel 9 wasn't such a good idea

Good point...hehe I just need to remove the "!" right?

tsk tsk tsk, such a trouble maker. Watch out, us penguin lovers have teeth. rwar, munchmunch.

Anyways, take back #1? I don't think MS ever was the leader in servers, perhaps in SME but certainly not in large corporations where big blue and other big names throw their punches. On the internet, IIS has never been #1 as far as I know, if it ever had, every penguin hugger (including me!) on the planet would be crying foul.

.Net has my radar beeping through, that seems like it can change things.

Anyways, maybe take a look at these URLs. A quick google search brought them up... not sure if they're at use at all for you:
http://www.pstruh.cz/.../urlrepl/library.htm
http://www.isapirewrite.com/

Yep. Not something I'd do - at least not in my main images directory.



Cheers - Dan

----
Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln

LOL

I knew the angry Penguins would come out of the closet on that statement. LOL



As per large corporations, you are correct. The buyers of Amdahl and IBM system III's are not the norm. And those guys spend a lot of time in the Cobol and Fortran arenas.

What made the Penguin get a big foot hold is Dell and its server hosting service as well as others. But I guess if you are looking for the cheapest way to do it and the greatest profit (as Dell and other public companies do) they would choose it over the more expensive MS OS. Just as MySQL has a foothold over MSSQL, Oracle, and others with a price issue.

Thta's OK Aki, there will always be room for the Penguin. Just as Apple has survived through their school programs and niche development programs. The Penguin will live on and maybe even longer than Commodore Basic!

Did you see where a group of people got a Commodore 64 to act as a server on the net? See, anything is possible for the Penguin!LOL

Both products have carved niches for themselves. If MS can create software that doesn't create those spectacular PR/security problems (Nimda for example) I think they're going to do well especially at home and in the SMEs. mmmmmmm... yummy looking worm, bite or not? Naw, just stop handling Mr. NT's support instead (not that I would anyways, there are more qualified people in the office to handle that)

Funny you should mention the C64, I was looking at putting Linux on my PDA until I saw all the warning labels on the site. My PDA's got a nice little 1G Microdrive on it and its possible to get a Network card for it as well. I could of kept a minature version of my devel env in my pocket at all times and on the road, I could just plug into any local network whenever I wanted to show off/work on my stuff.

I figured out what my next thread will be when I get a chance.

Companies that develop for the Penguin that have gone BK. Hmmm...I better not. There may be a server space issue. LOL

Seriously I have had nothing but horror and grey hair from MY Linux server. It had an uptime percent that would get most IT specialists fired ten times over. My NT servers that I have do not have uptime issues whatsoever. The one that I use for LinksSQL/GForum/etc has been restarted 2 times in 30 months. Both planned. My Linux server, well lets just say that if it was up more than 70 percent of the time it was a good day. Yes, Daily!

Maybe it was from the ISP, maybe it was the virtual IP's giving them a fit, maybe it was the 36 domains on one server, who knows. All I know is that I do not have any problems on NT. So why fix something that isn't broke right!

By the way, I agree about .NET. That will be the death deal to Java in the business market. But, that is just my opinion of couse.

Oh and the Nimda virus did not populate at the same level as KLEZ has. Sure Outlook made it go like wildfire as almost all virus programs use security issues (left unfixed, unpatched and unprotected by antivirus programs) to multiply. The reason these made such a footprint was the people that were on the net without virus protection and/or patching their Outlook (sex without a condom).

The only true MS only virus seen in the last couple years was Code Red and the spin offs of Code Red. This attacked MS Servers only.

Bottom line, getting me to convert to the Penguin would take an act of God! LOL