Sneaky flickr image hiding

[Fourstar]

Today I came across a technique I'd never seen before to prevent image saving.

Flickr take a 1x1 pixel transparent gif, stretch it to the appropriate size and overlay the photo with it.

Whenever you try to interact with the photo you get the gif instead.

I ended up blocking the gif and that worked nicely.

Here is the page and the code they use:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98033476@N00/2717268004/

<div id="photoImgDiv2717268004" style="width:502px" class="photoImgDiv">

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2717268004_d2145751a0.jpg?v=0" 
     alt="1648_1_lg by double-speak." 
     title="" 
     width="500" 
     height="423" 
     onload="show_notes_initially();" 
     class="reflect">

<img style="position:relative; 
     top:-425px; 
     margin-bottom:-425px; 
     display:block;" 
     src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif" 
     alt="" 
     width="500" 
     height="423">

</div>

 

[konicky]

Gif overlay

The gif overlay is there for a reason. To stop you downloading other peoples photographs!!!!

 

[GravyMonster]

The gif overlay is there for a reason. To stop you downloading other peoples photographs!!!!

Yes. Yes it is. However the practise is completely useless as there are hundreds of very straightforward ways around the blocking technology to get at the images.

If you don't want people to nick your work, either watermark them or dont put it online.

 

[MikeHunt79]

I guess it stops a lot of casual downloaders tho...

 

[Fourstar]

Like most forms of DRM it inconveniences the average person doing things that shouldn't be wrong. What is the harm of saving a photo to your PC?

It certainly won't stop someone pirating the image if they want to.

In my case I wasn't even trying to download it. I was wanting to use Firefox's ImageZoom plugin on it.

 

[Shoseki]

I was gonna say, its not going to stop anyone for very long... useless tbh.

 

[suarve]

I was gonna say, its not going to stop anyone for very long... useless tbh.

It's not useless, as said above this will stop casual users from downloading images. However, more savvy and determined users will get around this.

 

[Augmented]

In my case I wasn't even trying to download it. I was wanting to use Firefox's ImageZoom plugin on it.

Have you seen the BetterFlickr extension? It compiles a number of useful flickr greasemonkey scripts for things like image zooming and links to larger versions.

 

[Ladforce]

It's not useless, as said above this will stop casual users from downloading images. However, more savvy and determined users will get around this.

Yea but the point is the average user just wants it for a background or something. The more determined people will be the ones wanting to steal it and they know exactly how to work around it.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

Firebug ***.

 

[Fourstar]

Have you seen the BetterFlickr extension? It compiles a number of useful flickr greasemonkey scripts for things like image zooming and links to larger versions.

Nope not come across BetterFlickr, but I don't use flickr enough to have noticed the shortcomings it addresses.