Mister Denial Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Hello everyone, I am used to people stealing my product images for their own websites, but today I came across two websites that really take the cake, they stole hundreds of images, and the entire product descriptions too! So not only did they steal my hard work, now I have to worry about Google thinking I am the one with duplicate content too! Both merchants are based in Pakistan, so there is not much I can do legally, but I was wondering if there is any good way to make image and content stealing more difficult in Prestashop? I mean, they ripped my entire website, slapped another layout over it, and that's it. There has to be some way to protect against this, no? Thanks for your input and help! A very frustrated small business owner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulito Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Good morning I am not clever at this sort of thing but: Did you watermark your images? Did you disable right click on the mouse ? Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 Hi Paul, thanks for your input! I did not disable the right click simply because it makes the customer experience worse. What I was hoping for would be some kind of trick like Amazon uses, that overlays a 1x1 transparent PNG over their product photos, so when you right-click-save you only get an empty 1x1 pixel file. Or a module that serves the images as a JS script or something, anything that makes stealing harder without impacting the visitor experience. Most of those thefts are from China and Pakistan, so maybe IP Blocking those countries would be an option? I used to embed watermarks, but they edit them out, and it makes the product images less appealing to customers on top. And what about the entire text content being stolen too, is there a way to fight that? Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulito Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 To be honest, I do not know how to solve your problem. Your site is obviously so popular that others need to steal/borrow your images/content so that is something to be proud of. You are not the first and will certainly not be the site to suffer from this sort of thing, so bite the bullet and be proud. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innercode Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Hi, JS can be disabled so it won't help. As you stated you can try block visitors from some countries but IP can be easilly changed with e.g. torbrowser which changes your IP in seconds. You can't protect your text content. I would try to contact Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 Damn, it's really frustrating to be so helpless against those people. They even post my stuff on their Facebook page, and when trying to report it, the Facebook reporting form fails, it's just not working. It's really eating me up. But thanks for the advice with Google, I have already filed a request, so I am now in good company - how many was it, 2.5 million URLs reported to Google every week? ;-) Anyways, if anyone has a good advice on how to reliably IP block those countries, I would appreciate. At least I can try and make it hard for them! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulito Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Hello again For anything to do with IP addresses then It would be a good idea to contact this man, this is what he does You can visit his site HERE or just look for El Patron on the forum. He is a Moderator I hope this helps Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Seaver Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 It is in such a situation that you may need go for copyright claims and take down notices, but such notices will be honored depending on the country in which the person is located. The Best way to prevent Photo Theft and let people know the image is copyrighted is by using a visible watermark. It is also recommended to resize the large resolution images before you post them online. I have been using a software called Mass Watermark.It allows me to add Text/Logo Watermark to multiple Images and resize them at the same time It's not free though cost $30.Take a look http://www.masswatermark.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffV Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I'm going to have this issue soon with my site. I have been trying to figure out a way to protect myself before I launch 1000's of unique photos. It would be great to hear some feedback about the above mentioned masswatermark program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Jeff, watermark is a core module, just go to your modules and search for watermark, enable it and configure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffV Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 @bill dalton - Yes, I have already tested this and even with the most recent updates to the PS native watermark module, I cannot get it to work with my shop. Maybe it's the theme I'm using. Anyway, adding the watermark into the edited images that I am using, seems to be a more reliable way to get a proper and consistent watermark. Now, if I could only get my PS 1.5.6.1 to let me add new features in my products, I might be able to launch this site. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 You might try this out, http://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/260376-resizable-png-watermark-module-prestashop-15/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 The thing about visible watermarks I keep asking myself is, how much does this negatively affect the customer experience? I know that personally I am extremelx bothered by watermarks on shopping sites, so I am hesitant to use it on my own site. Does anyone have experience on this topic? Do watermarks affect customers, or do they mostly not care? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 They are butt-ugly. That said, there are 2 reasons to do it, advertising and advertising. The first advertising happens on your web site. The images not only draw the eye but are often the only thing remembered. Including your brand used in the watermark. The second reason, is the same as the first except it happens off your web site. In addition to those that steal your image, (most of these are insignificant and not worth your time), there are important uses for your images, it is lawful to use your images for certain things and in appropriate context. It may be a review of your work or just an image seen at Google images, or Pinterest. Are they for everyone? I don't think everyone, but for some photographers, such as those who do portraits and wedding pictures commercially, for whom the marketing advantages of a watermark outweigh the disadvantages. Absolutely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 They are butt-ugly. Hi Bill, thanks for your insight! 100% agree with the above statement! What is your opinion on product photos? Would you use watermarks if only one single product was shown in the photo, and no other context except for a white background? I have been looking for a good watermark for my product photos for years, but no matter what I try, I can't help but finding them extremely distracting and "unprofessional". I feel they lower the value of the depicted item, even if the item was not expensive to start with. Of course having your website URL displayed numerous times on Pinterest, never thought of that, it's quite sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 (edited) I myself haven't used them, mainly because I always looked at it from the angle of preventing reuse of my images and I did not think it was worth the effort. Even though for example I'm in a fashion business where many of the manufactures do not invest enough in good quality product images. If I invest in producing better images I become my competitors art department! Literally. It is amazing how blatant this practise is. But I never used watermarks. I just do not like them. That said, times are changing. I need to "learn" how to incorporate a distinctive mark that will enhance and benefit for a variety of no-brainer reasons. Edited March 19, 2014 by Bill Dalton (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 Hi Bill, looks like we are in the exact same boat then, because I too are in the fashion industry, and my suppliers / brands produce low quality images, so I shoot my own, only to get them stolen by competitors. So that makes two of us working in their own competitors art department! And just like you, I am struggling to find a good way to incorporate them without putting of the customers. Watermarks look so cheap if you slap them over the image, and if you put them in a corner, they're too easy to remove. I even tried using the invisible Digimarc watermarks, but they are absolutely no deterrent. Some websites use this tricky little transparent PNG overlay on their product images, if you right click you're actually saving a 1 x 1px image instead of the correct image, if that was available as a module for PS, that would probably be the best shot at making it hard for people to steal your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Patron Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 here is a good article and I think what you want, see 'tricking the downloaders' http://www.dwuser.com/education/content/stop-the-thieves-strategies-to-protect-your-images/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 The problem with the overlay is that it will stop only the most "inexperienced" user. The images are as simple to get as saving the page to your hard drive, and that gives the user the overlay and the image they want. It is not a solution at all. The only solution is to put it in the image with some overlap of the image. This will at least make it harder for our competitors to have as "good" of a copy even if they are willing to try to remove the watermark. Personally, for me, I'll be adding them individually in Photoshop with placement based on the image. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Denial Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 Hi Fred, thanks for your input also on this topic! :-) @ Bill: ok, so I see that is no solution either. Most of the the efforts to thwart thieves only punishes the regular users, it seems. I think I will go the Photoshop way too, and add watermarks. Do you know how PS behaves if I replace the original file I uploaded for a product with a new one, with an added watermark? Will the generated images have the same filename as the previous ones? I have many items that have been shared 50+ times on Pinterest or Polyvore, and I would hate to have all those image backlinks go to waste if I replace the original file with a watermarked file. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 (edited) When you use an image in PS it changes the image name from the original to the names you define in Preferences > Images plus it will add a numerical identifier that will change as you add new images. For your existing images if you are concerned about that, you can bypass the PS system and download your prestashop\img\p directory. You just need to edit the images that have "only" a number followed by .jpg You will see many directory's that contain images. (you only need the "P" directory), In each of these directory's you can delete all images that have letters in the name. For exsample 10.jpg 10-home_default.jpg 10-home_featured.jpg ... and so on. You keep only the one that is 10.jpg and delete the rest. You delete the rest because this makes it much faster to re-upload. You will need to keep the directory structure for the re-upload as well. After you edit the images and re-upload, you will need to regenerate thumbnails in Preferences > Images. Seems like a lot of work but this would actually be a faster method than loading them one by one VIA PS. Edited March 19, 2014 by Bill Dalton (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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