Anyone who creates unique content knows that it is very difficult to protect it from being copied. One option to protect it is to use the Copy Prevention module.
You work hard to create unique content for your site and add individual images, but one sunny day someone visits your site and just copies it all. You spent days developing an individual and high-quality website, and someone just stole it from you in 5 minutes. Now what you have already created is no longer considered unique.
In order to avoid such situations, there is a simple solution — installing the Drupal Copy Prevention module. Today, web developers from Wishdesk will share the Copy Prevention module's features and how to install it on your website to protect your content.
What is the Copy Prevention module?
Last updated: 17 September 2020
Compatible with Drupal version: 7, 8, 9
The Copy Prevention module is a tool to prevent the copying or the theft of content including:
- text
- images
This module provides functionality that allows you to easily protect the original content added to the site. As an example of usage, you can imagine that you are the owner of a site with lectures that you provide for a fee. If these lectures are freely available (having been copied), then the site will go bankrupt.
It is important to understand that this module does not make it possible to fully protect the content. More advanced users can find other ways to copy such as using:
- watch source
- print-screen
etc.
How does the Copy Prevention module work?
This module has several methods to prevent the copying of content.
Regarding textual content:
- Disable text selection
- Disable copy to clipboard
- Disable the right-click context menu
Regarding image content:
- Disable right-click context menu on images
- Place a transparent gif image above all images
- Select the minimal image dimension
Methods of protecting images from search engines:
- Set “X-Robots” tag for HTTP header
- Add “noimageindex” robots meta tag to page head
- Disallow images indexing in robots.txt
A short overview of the pros and cons of the Copy Prevention module
Advantages of Copy Prevention module:
- You can easily protect your intellectual property from most visitors to your site.
- You have the ability to grant rights for copying the content to different types of users (moderator, etc.)
- Image indexing control.
Disadvantages of Copy Prevention module:
- Opportunities for customization are limited.
- There is no functionality to select which nodes can not be copied.
How to protect your website content with the Copy Prevention module?
1. Open the admin pallet of your Drupal website.
2. Click “Extend” and find the “Copy Prevention” field.
3. Then click the checkbox and press the “Install” button.
- By default, all “Copy Prevention” settings are disabled and do not affect the pages.
4. You are able to customize the module as you need. To do this, click:
- Configuration
- User interface
- Copy Prevention
5. In this configuration of the user interface, you can choose all the methods that you need.
6. Let's select all items from the “Body tag attributes” section and press the “Save configuration” button.
7. If we go to our node (content) and try to copy the text, nothing will stop us. This is because we are logged in as an administrator. By default, administrators have access to copy, but we can change this later.
8. Now we have the role of anonymous user and we can no longer copy the text. Also, if you look at the developer tool, you can see that special attributes have been added.
9. The same can be done with pictures.
- The first checkbox turns off the context menu when you click on the pictures
- The second checkbox overlays a transparent gif image on top of yours
- And here you can specify the minimum height and width from which the module will work
10. A cool feature is that you can change the image indexing settings for search engines. This acts as another barrier to prevent pictures from being found and copied.
- It is important to know that for the "Disallow images" item you need to install the “RobotsTXT” module.
Permissions for the Copy Prevention module
You may also provide permissions for various roles on your site. To do this, click:
- People
- Permissions
- Copy Prevention field
Here you can configure who has the ability to copy the contents of the pages (Bypass Copy prevention) and who can configure this module (Administer Copy prevention.)
Install the Copy Prevention module to prevent image and content theft from your website!
The Copy Prevention module for your Drupal site is one of the most effective ways to really keep your Drupal site data from being copied.
Install this module on the Drupal website to prevent information theft, but pay attention to all the nuances of the setup so as not to disrupt the integrity of your site.
If you feel that you cannot do it yourself, then just contact our web development company!
