Hi.

I am working on a website for a client, but this could also apply to any kind of text editing.
I have written an article, that I put a lot of effort into and I don't like the idea of someone else copy-pasting it to their site and claiming it as their own creation. It's not that I am making money of it, I don't even intend it to be "unable-to-be-copy-pasted" and putting a copyright at the end won't help anyway.
What I want is to put some catch into the text, something very subtle, that will be copied when the "person" copy-pastes the text somewhere else. I just don't know what to use. Maybe a double-space ( &nbps somewhere. I don't know, so I am asking for your suggestions, especially if you have some experience with this.

Thank you very much

You could insert characters the same colour as the background and use them as spaces. If it's copied without formatting the characters will copy across and appear in normal colour, however some words may not be indexed properly by google as a result.

That's a good suggestion However at the end, the person that copied the text will see the characters, that were previously hidden. What I want to achieve is that the person doesn't know that there is something "hidden" in the text until I say: "But you have copied my article! Oh you want proof? The text contains something that you don't know about, but I do! Ha ha!"

You can put a div over the whole page. Then the text would be un-selectable.

Carefully craft the sentences so that when the source is viewed and the text wrapped at a specific column count, it reveals an ASCII representation of the male reproductive organs.

Put all the text in an image! :O

<.<

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Put all the text in an image! :O
<.<

A very good idea and annoying if you want to copy something but it does not stop people from transcribing the original.

Perhaps you should try something a little different. Anything that is subtle enough not to arouse suspicion... Useless schweines that have to copy someones work may not notice if you write it well. Look at what I have written... Hope it helps.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

You can put a div over the whole page. Then the text would be un-selectable.

I like this idea and I'll give it a try...although I think the hyperlinks won't be clickable then.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Carefully craft the sentences so that when the source is viewed and the text wrapped at a specific column count, it reveals an ASCII representation of the male reproductive organs.

This is actually quite funny I just can't imagine it in practice. Can you please show me an example?

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Put all the text in an image! :O

<.<

I thought of that, but the text is quite long and would take a lot of time and bandwidth to load...and hyperlinks won't work either.

Quote from PaulH :

A very good idea and annoying if you want to copy something but it does not stop people from transcribing the original.

Perhaps you should try something a little different. Anything that is subtle enough not to arouse suspicion... Useless schweines that have to copy someones work may not notice if you write it well. Look at what I have written... Hope it helps.

I think your suggestion is the best one since I have absolutely no clue where the catch is hidden Can you tell me please?

schweines should instead be swine.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

schweines should instead be swine.

Yes your right. Schweines is wrong too (I just babelfished it), it's schwein or plural as schweine apparently. Maybe I should have just written [content removed] instead or even better just written pigs in English. It's late and I've been drinking.

Anyway, as for my "catch" [PM sent]. For the rest of you, I'll let you work it out. It's quite simple.

[edit] Damn I still wrote pigs after you corrected me. The dictionary doesn't seem to have pigs, only pig. Bloody swine! [/edit]

Quote from breadfan :

I like this idea and I'll give it a try...although I think the hyperlinks won't be clickable then.

Don't make text unselectable, pointless and will pi** off users.

It does not work, you just do view source and then copy from the html. If someone wants the text they WILL take it. This is where copyright comes in. If you find the text taken just contact the site first, failing that their hosts.

NOTHING you can do, its the nature of the web.

Its as bad as right click blocking, pointless.

Another idea...

Alt 32 - Space
Alt 255 - Alternative Space

Quote from Woz :

Don't make text unselectable, pointless and will pi** off users.

It does not work, you just do view source and then copy from the html. If someone wants the text they WILL take it. This is where copyright comes in. If you find the text taken just contact the site first, failing that their hosts.

NOTHING you can do, its the nature of the web.

Its as bad as right click blocking, pointless.

This man is correct.

I recently got asked to prevent right-clicking on a clients images online - pointless. Anyone who wants the pictures can just scan grab or indeed view the source. The best way for pictures is to watermark them. With text you really only have the copyright notice.

Woz is right, all tricks that were mentioned are no defense against anyone with half a brain. They can view the HTML source, grab the images from the cache, use OCR, or simply re-type the text that they read. And all these measures do annoy your readers.

The only thing I can think of that might work is putting your text in a PDF, and setting some protections in that file. You can put an "appetizer" -- a summary and the opening paragraphs -- in plaintext on the site. (PDF's can be cracked, though.)

The other thing that you can do is "watermark" your text, so you can spot copies of your work on the web. The simplest way is to be creative with words. Use an unusual word here and there, or even invent some new words. Google to see if that combination is unique on the web. After publication, you can use that combination to check for copies of your work. However, watermarking does not work if search engines are stopped from scanning the copied page. And if you do spot a copy, it's difficult to get them to remove the copy.

Quote from PaulH :

A very good idea and annoying if you want to copy something but it does not stop people from transcribing the original.

Perhaps you should try something a little different. Anything that is subtle enough not to arouse suspicion... Useless schweines that have to copy someones work may not notice if you write it well. Look at what I have written... Hope it helps.

PaulH

Quote from Woz :

Don't make text unselectable, pointless and will pi** off users.

It does not work, you just do view source and then copy from the html. If someone wants the text they WILL take it. This is where copyright comes in. If you find the text taken just contact the site first, failing that their hosts.

NOTHING you can do, its the nature of the web.

Its as bad as right click blocking, pointless.

You've made a very good point here. Maybe I should repeat that I don't need to prevent users from copying my text (I know how copy-protection annoys people). I just want to add some subtle watermark, that will help me recognize my text.

@PaulH, thanks for the PM and your solution, it's great, definetly what I was looking for

Quote from PaulH :

Perhaps you should try something a little different. Anything that is subtle enough not to arouse suspicion... Useless schweines that have to copy someones work may not notice if you write it well. Look at what I have written... Hope it helps.

Oh I just worked it out - now THAT is clever!