• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Pic Thieves - What to do?

Satyrday Reptiles

Satyrday Reptiles

Member... hee,hee,hee! (;
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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.

cross1-parents.jpg


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,  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.  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.  
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...  (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?  
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' -  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.  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'.  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.  It does the same thing if you try to print the web page.  I ran across this some time ago when trying to print or copy something off the net to save for future reference.  No, unfortunately I don't remember what it was or what site it was off of, just remember the little pop-up window.  Perhaps some of the computer gurus here might know?

Dianne
 
Its javascript.  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.  We use it, and it does work.  However, it can be gotten around if you know how.  So we use it more as a "reminder" 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.  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.  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.  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=':p'>

-Kat Hall
 
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 "chameleon" on the first page of the results. I replaced this picture with a graphic that said "For pictures of chameleons check out www.ExoticLizards.com". Lasted for the four weeks until the new update  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

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'>  ).
 
Think we had that right click disable thing on the pics on site, and it worked as far as I knew, until the new Internet Explorer came out. Unfortunately, I'm rather a computer novice, and had no idea it was irritating to you; more sophisticated users, (eeek!&#33<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'>)
We never had a problem until recently, (in 'fixing' the pic everyone liked to 'borrow' - the other day, all I did was mark it up with a copyright...)
Thanks again for all your help - you guys are great!
<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>
Liz
 
I also didn't realize that people found it annyoing.   Perhaps it would be better to take it off and put a watermark or logo on the pictures?  I think I'll do that, I don't want people to avoid my site because of a stupid little script  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Kara
 
Liz,

Unfortunately, folks don't respect the hard work of others. I can completely sympathize with you, since I have had past experiences with image theft, web content theft, et al. Fortunately, those I've contacted have been cooperative and majority of the image theft cases, it's because they liked the pictures I shot of my iguana Vega$ (iow, there was no malicious intent). I don't mind if my work (and all my work is not-for-profit) is used, just ask first and provide due credit!

If the situation persists and you wish to pursue it, you can contact the offender's ISP and/or webhosting service. I can't remember the exact conditions (all my notes are at the office), but a webhosting service can be liable for the contents of clients' sites. All your material on *your* site is not only protected by copyright laws but also the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. If you need help with helping you sort this out, let me know.

You may want to consider adding the following similar text to the footer of your page. I use this for my Herp Vet Connection site. It's a bit wordy and doesn't necessarily STOP everyone but it's there!! The first line is *key* from what I understand. I added the remaining verbage to make it explicit.

Copyright ©1999-2002 Herp Vet Connection. All Rights Reserved.
All gathered data/text, images/graphics and code, unless stated otherwise are property of Herp Vet Connection and cannot be used without written permission from the HVC Team.

If you have control over your Apache server, read:
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/bandwidththeft.shtml (this only deters bandwidth theft, meaning the offending parties are linking to your image)

If you have PHP capability, read:
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/protectimages.shtml (this only deters bandwidth theft, meaning the offending parties are linking to your image)

These links http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa062001a.htm
http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa062701a.htm
describe methods to deter image theft, but keep in mind, that if the thief wants it, he'll find a way to get it.

FWIW, digital watermarking is useful really only if you want to show evidence of image theft.

If I come across any generic scripts, I'll let you know.

I hope the above info helps.

Desiree Wong
 
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