[Web Dev] Let's discuss anti-piracy/branding removal techniques

[Croc]

All of us developers are bound to have this happen to them at one point or another if it hasn't already happened. It surely doesn't feel good to have your hard work stolen and stripped of all credit. However, unlike other forms of development, us web developers have very few options when it comes to protecting our work. Let's discuss potential solutions!

Recently I've been brainstorming ways around this problem and I came up with a simple way to deter non-tech saavy clients from messing with your branding on a site or theme. You can use Javascript along with regex to check if the branding is correct and if it isn't, temporarily "uglify" the site so that the client is forced to change it back or get a new site/theme.

 

[Zooply]

I love you

 

[TheLightDev]

I love you

Um.

 

[Zooply]

Um.

Cuz that's actually brilliant.

 

[TheLightDev]

Hmm... Maybe adding something that if the code is removed it will email you or something.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

And when they remove the piece of code..? The average 12 year old internet troll knows how to inspect element and view sources.

 

[Wvisoecj]

There's no way to protect code given to client except with security through obscurity. But yea that give's me some ideas that I will play with to see if it can obscure it more.

 

[spurkle]

You cant prevent anyone from removing branding, unless you host the website by yourself.

People hack/crack obfuscated/crypted/encrypted .exes, and you can't even do that to a website.

 

[Wvisoecj]

You cant prevent anyone from removing branding, unless you host the website by yourself.

People hack/crack obfuscated/crypted/encrypted .exes, and you for the website you can't even do that.

Right click, view source, and copy. You can't encrypt the front-end.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

There is virtually no way to do this. The only way I can think of is having things run off of your database, pulling information with php, but not every

You cant prevent anyone from removing branding, unless you host the website by yourself.

People hack/crack obfuscated/crypted/encrypted .exes, and you can't even do that to a website.

Hosting the website yourself does nothing. People can download all of the source files from their browser. They can't download the raw php code on sites unless the site lacks php on the server, but that leaves every site that doesn't use php vulnerable.

 

[Wvisoecj]

spurkle lAkjtzAZ0 I'm pretty sure OP is talking about HTML, CSS, and JS. There is no branding involved in the backend.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

spurkle lAkjtzAZ0 I'm pretty sure OP is talking about HTML, CSS, and JS. There is no branding involved in the backend.

Well still, branding isn't the only thing to worry about. I know this post is talking about that specifically, but even if there's no branding, you don't want users ripping 100% of your code and making a copy. Thanks for reminding me, didn't quite read all of it.

 

[Wvisoecj]

Well still, branding isn't the only thing to worry about. I know this post is talking about that specifically, but even if there's no branding, you don't want users ripping 100% of your code and making a copy. Thanks for reminding me, didn't quite read all of it.

I have some obscurity techniques that I use in my Java plugins, but I wouldn't share it .

It's impossible to dissuade users from ripping off websites. There are unminifers out there and any DOM updates by JavaScript are visible via the element inspector.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

I have some obscurity techniques that I use in my Java plugins, but I wouldn't share it .

It's impossible to dissuade users from ripping off websites. There are unminifers out there and any DOM updates by JavaScript are visible via the element inspector.

Don't worry, I wouldn't know what to do with the Java code anyway *here I come stackoverflow*. But yeah, honestly it's not a huge deal IMO. Most users don't rip sites completely from my experience, and if they do, I'm sure people would believe the web developer with dozens of sites in his/her portfolio over a user with 1 site that's identical to one on the dev's site.

 

[Wvisoecj]

Don't worry, I wouldn't know what to do with the Java code anyway *here I come stackoverflow*. But yeah, honestly it's not a huge deal IMO. Most users don't rip sites completely from my experience, and if they do, I'm sure people would believe the web developer with dozens of sites in his/her portfolio over a user with 1 site that's identical to one on the dev's site.

I have a pretty popular hosting template in the resources and a lot of people don't follow the license of requiring a link for the icon provider. So far I've found 2 and hounded 1 till they added it, and another added it on request.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

I have a pretty popular hosting template in the resources and a lot of people don't follow the license of requiring a link for the icon provider. So far I've found 2 and hounded 1 till they added it, and another added it on request.

So many people just want a quick way out huh :/. It's sad people can't give credit where it's due with simple things like this.

 

[Croc]

And when they remove the piece of code..? The average 12 year old internet troll knows how to inspect element and view sources.

What 12 year olds are you talking to? Most of the ones here don't seem too tech-savvy.

Find function that sends email -> delete it -> hello piracy

Obviously, these methods are meant to deter the non-developers that don't have any clue about how a website works.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

What 12 year olds are you talking to? Most of the ones here don't seem too tech-savvy.



Obviously, these methods are meant to deter the non-developers that don't have any clue about how a website works.

Well I know that when I was 11/12, I was always trying to "hack" websites (pathetic, rip). Inspect element was one of the first things I learned in terms of editing websites and seeing what they're made of. A lot of younger people I know have a basic idea of how to use it. Just depends on the person I guess

 

[Wvisoecj]

Best bet for ensuring the JS stays there is to mark it as important with comments or something, and minify it.