HI all,
I am developing a series of educational web apps and would like to protect the valuable text content of the apps from plagiarism and download. Is this possible?
I know that you can select a text box and turn off the ‘allow text selection’ checkbox but we have hundreds of text boxes and this option is not the most feasible right now.
Is there any way to globally protect a Hype web app using JavaScript or some hidden feature I am yet to discover in Hype Pro?
Thanks in advance, Stephen.
Unfortunately not, once you get a piece of text displayed in a browser it can easily be copied and pasted. You can definitely discourage by unchecking allow selection.
Cool good to know going forward cheers @Daniel
While you can't really stop them from copying a Hype project, you can add a speed bump. Basically, you can add code to your project that prevents the Hype project from running on another website. While this code could be removed, or the content simply copied out of the project, it is a good deterrent.
You can read about this approach here...
-- Free Hype Templates 🏗 - #36 by Photics
...and here...
-- Free Template Tuesday #9 – Tumult Hype “Lock” – Photics.com
Theoretically this basic approach can be expanded. You can add booby traps to your project. So, if your Hype project is not running on your website, it can then send an alert to you via a web beacon. (Have the JavaScript load a file that's not normally loaded.) Assuming the booby trap wasn't detected or blocked somehow, that should identify the hostile website.
Thanks @Photics for that informative post. It looks like a good option for deterring and monitoring unwanted access to the apps. I will give it a try in a test project and see how it performs as a solution! Might try to track current activity with google analytics also to give a heads up on unusual activity,
Many thanks.
Anything you put on the web can be downloaded/accessed in some way.
The only sure way to make sure no one can steal your text/code is to never put it on the Internet at all.
All you can do, as photonics shows, is slow people down. Personally I would spend my time on other more useful things. Just be better then the competition/copycats and people will stick with you.
Good advice @Rick4F
Wouldn’t a simple way be putting a transparent rectangle over the content?
@PappaSmalls This would interfere with buttons and interactivity but cheers for the input !
I’m guessing that putting the buttons over the rectangle isn’t an option.
Unchecking “Allow text selection” is another way to deter copying. Again, this is just a deterrent, as the text could be copied by editing the HTML or simply taking a screenshot.
Not all browsers support this setting though.
Not an option after the apps are created unfortunately, with over 600 scenes it just wouldn’t be feasible.
Forgive my pedantry but what you’re talking about is theft (copyright infringement) rather than plagiarism. There are no laws against plagiarism but there are against copyright infringement. The only thing you can and should do is to display very visible copyright notices on everything.
Sound advice @peterdanckwerts
How’s your project running with 600 scenes? That sounds like a tremendous amount. Does it effect performance in the browser or just when you’re editing the document?
Hi @PappaSmalls each project (app) has 60 scenes and we have 10 in total so far and thats where I was getting the number 600 scenes (in total). The performance of each app is excellent at a final export of 3.8MB each. We use json files to pull in all of the text and image data from an external server dramatically cutting down on project size while getting the best performance possible.
Two methods - both a headache, the latter more like a migraine. The first is to place a transparent object on top of each text element. This runs interference, giving the visitor’s cursor nothing to select. The second is resource- and time-intensive: create the text as a bitmap (not recommended). While the former can be copied from the HTML, the latter cannot, as it is just pixels.
If a visitor has OCR tools, this will pull the text out of a screenshot (but not with cursive or funky fonts.)
People who want to copy anything from a web page will find a way to do it. These ideas about stopping copy and paste are a complete waste of time.
It’s easy to extract text and images, the developer tools on several browsers will hand you the page sources and full-size images.
If you make something available on the web, it can be copied.
Naturally, it depends on who wants the image. The average consumer can manage a screen shot but they would not know how to pull the image through other means. As you say, someone with the know-how wouldn’t have a problem.
I would say that the average person probably causes no harm by copying an image. The people who might benefit will know how to do it.
I copy loads of images from the web. I wouldn’t have paid for them and I don’t distribute or make money from them. I cause no harm, they are just there for my reference or because I think they are cool.