[filmscanners] Re: Disabling right-click,etc. (was: Web home page writing software)

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

Arthur writes:

> The ONLY absolutes I see here are that an
> artist's work is his own to do as he pleases,
> and that there is no moral authority to take
> or copy other people's creations even if it
> is easy to do so, unless the artist has
> agreed to it.

Quite true, but the practical reality is that there is no way to prevent
people from stealing images off a Web site.  Either you do not post what you
do not want stolen, or you post images and accept that they will be stolen.
Posting images for everyone to see, and then trying to prevent them from
seeing them with elaborate protection mechanisms (and make no mistake, there
is no way to protect images without simultaneously preventing them from
being seen), doesn't make much sense.

Publishing images on a Web site is like publishing them in a magazine:  Some
people will cut pictures out of magazines and tape them to their walls,
rather than buy expensive prints.  But you usually tolerate the magazine
publication in exchange for the exposure, knowing that many people will not
be satisfied with just a cut-out magazine clip and/or will be too honest to
cheat that way, and will buy real prints.

I know that people may steal images off my site.  Heck, for personal use, I
explicitly authorize the downloading of images (indeed, the wallpapers
section is _designed_ for that).  I suppose I'm losing revenue in some vague
theoretical way by doing so.  However, I also know that big-money buyers
will still ask me for permission and pay me money for that permission when
they want to use an image for something more serious.  It's a trade-off.
Nobody would ever buy my pictures at all if they could not _see_ them.

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