Pic Thieves - What to do?

You know... guess this is more of a rant than anything, my apologies in advance, but this is really starting to piss me off,
I can no longer contain myself, and didn't think this appropriate for the BOI.....
Lately this pic of mine has been cropping up everywhere.



People are saying they're their dragons, one or the other are the parents of their hatchlings, (and they get the sexes wrong) they're for sale themselves, and/or they have hatchlings from one or both animals - you name it.
In a nutshell, spam_All of it is complete and utter BS.
I don't produce a lot of animals - I know my customers, and I know the hatch dates - nothing adds up.
I email these people, and it's always "I got them from so and so, - I didn't know...yada,yada,yada" They're nice about it, and usually edit out the misinformation once called on it - but always, of course, the perpetrator (sp?) mystery 'someone else did it' is, in every case, someone I've never even heard of. spam_Even still - I try to be nice about it, I tell them, "hey - send this guy to me if he's insistant, I'll try to figure it out, and set it straight." It never happens.
Yes, I know they're 'just beardies' and they're everywhere these days, but still, it's the principle. spam_
We got into reptiles several years ago because we thought they were cool, and that it might be fun - a clean, decent hobby. I do this on the side, and don't exactly make a lot of money doing it.

Just the behavior of some of these people - the lengths they will go to make a buck, the sheer stupidity,
and general lack of respect.
It's disgusting.

It's damn near enough to put you right off it and find another hobby. The very last thing this industry needs is even more dishonest people!

Granted - I don't mark up my pics with big, ugly copyrights all over them - guess I asked for it, really.. But still... honestly,
I didn't think I really had to... spam_(duh! yes, will admit to being a little nieve, but this pic has been prominantly on my site since March of this year, at least.)

I haven't 'reported' anyone officially, since they removed the offending, (imho) ads when requested, but should I? spam_
Would that make a difference - or be more of a PIA in the long run?
I didn't want to have to come here about it - I'm not at all looking for a 'free plug' - spam_just some honest insight.

Once again - I apologize for the rant, but still - I feel it had to be said, another case in point, (yet again.)
Thanks,
Liz

Really copyright enforcement is more of a pain than effective. All you can do is contact the person and have them remove it. You can follow that up with a "cease and desist" on lawyer letterhead to make it official.

You can place a small copyright on the graphic that will at least keep honest people honest but still won't stop people that really want to take it.

Thanks for your insight, Daniel.
The 'offending' parties were contacted, but you know.. it's always a vicious cycle of he said-she said.
I've "fixed" the pic so hopefully it will deter any further 'abuse.'
Would rather not dwell on it any more than I have to -
(wow, I was really angry the other day&#33<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> At the same time, though, I would like to thank everyone who helped me out here, in both bringing this to light, and their cooporation in setting things straight - (you know who you are...)
As well as for putting up with my little tirade.
Thanks guys,
Liz

Let me first state that I have no idea how what I'm about to tell you is done (I'm pretty basic in my pc skills) but there is a way to keep people from copying pics. &nbsp;There is a type of programming that will not let you copy a picture by right clicking the image or text, by highlighting image or text, or by hitting 'print screen'. &nbsp;As soon as you try to copy the image or text in question, a little window pops up saying that the picture/text can't be copied. &nbsp;It does the same thing if you try to print the web page. &nbsp;I ran across this some time ago when trying to print or copy something off the net to save for future reference. &nbsp;No, unfortunately I don't remember what it was or what site it was off of, just remember the little pop-up window. &nbsp;Perhaps some of the computer gurus here might know?

Dianne

Its javascript. &nbsp;Unfortunately it's easy to get around, but it might deter enough people to make it worth it.

Right Click Warning Script

You just add the above script to any web pages that you want a custom warning pop up added to. any time they try to copy a picture it pops up. &nbsp;We use it, and it does work. &nbsp;However, it can be gotten around if you know how. &nbsp;So we use it more as a &quot;reminder&quot; that they should ask first.

Kara

It also does not allow a user to right click to use the popup menu to go back to the previous screen. &nbsp;Personally, I consider such programming to be user hostile and do not ever go back to sites using that technique in their coding.

But that's just me, I guess. &nbsp;Bear in mind that it could chase away potential customers if your site is geared that way.

I heard about a program that broke up a graphic into multiple panes that are stuck together using an HTML table, but never tried it myself. &nbsp;I think Lacey Wilson used this for the graphics images on the intro page of this site.

I find those right-click hostile sites annoying as well, mostly because I right-click on links alot so that I can open them in a new window while still reading the current window.

Of course, anyone can circumvent them with only a little bit of work (and a little bit of digging through text and webpage code), so they don't add much in terms of protection.

As far as preventing image-copying, I'm seriously considering putting some sort of image mark on all of my photos I post from now on... It sucks though, because then there's always this little thing somewhere distracting people from the subject of the photo. <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

-Kat Hall

That software is also useless against someone with IE6.

If the site is hosted on your site as opposed to the person saving the picture to their computer and then uploading it to their site you can just change the picture file name (changing it in the HTML on your site as well) so it brings up a broken link or replace it with a graphic file that promotes your site.

For example I had a picture that would come up in Google's image search for &quot;chameleon&quot; on the first page of the results. I replaced this picture with a graphic that said &quot;For pictures of chameleons check out www.ExoticLizards.com&quot;. Lasted for the four weeks until the new update &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

The right click technique only keeps honest people honest and annoys most of the more sophisticated users (for example I couldn't right click to copy and paste an address for a deposit check I was mailing out earlier this week to a breeder because of this. There are ways to work around this but why make it harder for people to send you money <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'> &nbsp.