Preventing hubs from being duplicated

1. 72

   David 470posted 13 years ago

   Isn't possible for hubpages to implement a system where visitors can not copy and paste hubbers content on here? Surely, they could just rewrite it, however, I am sure it will turn them away more cause they can not simply copy it as easy.
   
   There's got to be a solution to this.

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   1. 82

      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Not possible.

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      1. 72

         David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         

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      Greek Oneposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Just do what I do... write really, really bad Hubs that no one will want to read

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      1. 73

         Hauntyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I practice that. Also, I try to write on topics that are unpopular and not in the least profitable. If I ever write on a popular topic I always take a stance that is impossible to identify with.
         
         What else? Try to break up the text and use a two column layout so it's harder to copy/paste.

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      2. 82

         Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Ayup.  Or talk about yourself a lot.
         
         Actually, I am surprised by how often I find stuff with my copyrights and links back to my site left as is..  very lazy plagiarists

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   3. 84

      kschangposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Pcunix is right, not possible. The "right-click" thing is Javascript, easily disabled. And I can always crawl the the site with an offline reader, such as HTTrack, then pull the text out that way, bypassing all Javascript.
      
      I've seen a solution before that relies on an ActiveX component that will not even let you take a screenshot, or a secret HTML layer on top with some random bits of invisible text that when pasted results in gibberish.   But those would be impossible to index by Google.

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2. 82

   Pcunixposted 13 years ago

   Well, I shouldn't really say that.
   
   Let's say that any such scheme is easily defeated and that people here would hate it because we often write in Notepad or whatever and paste into capsules.
   
   So - technically possible, not politically possible.

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3. 74

   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   I shouldn't jump in where I know so little.  But I do know that I have visited websites where I was not able to copy the text by highlighting. (It could be done manually, but that's time-consuming and discouraging.)  I don't know what made that possible, but I do know that it can be done.  Is that what is being discussed here - or a variant of it, anyway?

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      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, it can be prevented with Javascript, but as I said - it can be gotten around and most people here would hate it.

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      1. 74

         Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         As I said, I pretty much know nothing.  Definitely nothing about Javascript and such - those are simply words to me, and I know that you are quite expert at such things.
         
         As a visitor to those sites where I can't copy text, I also hate that and I have never been sure why it was implemented on them.  But I didn't know that the writers or site owners would also hate it.  How are they (how would we here be) affected?

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         1. 82

            Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Most people here write in Notepad or Word and paste into capsules..

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            1. 74

               Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I'm wondering if I am talking about the same thing you are talking about.
               
               Relache's answer helps clarify this for me.  (Thanks beaucoup, relache!)
               
               Just a recap of what I mean, to see if you and I are actually talking about the same phenomenon:
               
               Let's say I am not a Hubber.  I visit one of Anthony Lawrence's remarkable HubPages that is so wonderful and stunning, I decide I absolutely must copy it and paste it onto my own site and pretend it is mine.  I move the cursor to the text that I want to highlight for a quick highlight/right-click/copy-and-paste process. But, lo and behold, the text refuses to be highlighted. Curses, foiled again!
               
               I don't really see how the writer's original process of entering the words into the text capsules during the editing process became any part of this situation.  That's my confusion.

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               1. 86

                  Edweirdoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  If you are the thief that you describe, just right-click the page, choose "View Source" and then copy all of the text.
                  
                  It's possible to disable right-clicking via Javascript, but it's just as easy for a thief to disable Javascript in his browser, thereby defeating any protection efforts.
                  
                  And anyone with even the slightest bit of knowledge about programming can throw together a "scraper" that reads any URL and extracts all of the on-page text, regardless of any safeguards built in with Javascript or the like...

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                  1. 74

                     Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks so much for this explanation! THE BEST education takes place (oops, "can take place") on HubPages, no question.

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                     Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     And most wouldn't even bother.  They'd switch to a command line on their Mac and "curl"it down in half a second.

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                        Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Ohhhhhh - You know you're talking way above my pay grade now, don't you?
                        
                        And... are you maybe saying that only a Mac user would stoop to plagiarism?   
                        
                        One last question:  I now see that it's clear there's no fool-proof way to prevent all web plagiarism.  But is it worthwhile to install methods that help to slow it down?  that is, to make the copying so difficult that only someone extremely determined would bother with trying to bypass the safeguards?

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                        1. 82

                           Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           No. It's just that Windows doesn't have the tools that Mac and Linux users have.
                           
                           Most real web people use Macs and Linux, not Windows.

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                           1. 74

                              Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              Got it. I was really just trying to kid you, nothing more. But I always do appreciate learning more than I knew five minutes ago.

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                           2. 72

                              David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              I dislike the interface of macs. I know there good for graphic design stuff, but the interface always bothered me. (Grew up with windows)

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                                 Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                                 Your loss.  By the way, Win 7 looks just like Mac - but doesn't work like it.

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                                    David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                                    I been running on windows XP for a very long time. My computer is getting pretty old (2005) It was really good for its time, but not anymore.
                                    
                                    My friend has become a fan of macs because he said there quite good for graphic design related stuff. My college is full of pcs while my school was all MACS.

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                                    1. 82

                                       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                                       You really should stop by a Mac store and take a look..  unless you have specific software needs that require Windows, Mac really is a better choice.

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                        2. 66

                           relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           It DOESN'T take extreme determination to bypass safeguards, which is why most sites don't bother with them.  Besides, the TOS here puts the onus of protecting the work on the authors (who retain all ownership of their work). 
                           
                           If the copying is done here, HubPages deals with it swiftly, but if the copying happens elsewhere, it's not their jurisdiction to police.

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                           1. 74

                              Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              
                              So, you are saying that no safeguards currently exist that would slow down a casual copier (as opposed to the most determined one)? Did I understand that correctly?

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   2. 66

      relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      While a few methods such as you describe do exist, they do not work for all browsers and all operating systems all of the time, and are also easily circumvented.
      
      Hence, there is no reliable and fool-proof method for preventing web plagiarism.

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4. 72

   David 470posted 13 years ago

   Oh well, I thought it might just lower the amount of plagiarism. As Aficionada said, I too I have visited websites where right click is disable, this is why I brought this thread up.
   
   Personally, I write in the text capsules, I do not use anything beforehand.

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5. 60

   jokeapptvposted 13 years ago

   im sure it can be done somehow
   i like myfreecopyright com
   they are cool

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6. 72

   David 470posted 13 years ago

   @Pcunix, Yeah, I really need a new computer soon. This computer can not be upgraded any further. Its great for general use, but the volume is getting dirty on the hard drive. I think the hard drive may be going bad.
   
   Plus, my hard drive is only 40 gb, and the computer itself is just starting to run bad.

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