I was just sent this link from the Rainmaker Platform, as their response to why they don’t offer copyright protection. What I see here in the comments, are people who are annoyed at having to turn off a plug-in before providing support. They may never have had their content stolen (otherwise they would be pissed off and doing whatever it takes to deter theft and appreciate the attempts that others make to deter.)

I also see the comments with questions unanswered such as- What kind of ”harm” are you claiming these plug-ins do? Please give examples- besides upsetting the people who provide support and blocking users with screenreader or an alternative mouse tool? Why is that minor annoyance for a few people considered Harmful?

Quote: “But there are also situations (membership-sites) where you got really valuable content or images and it’s important to prevent or at least make it harder for people to copy and publish it anywhere else. The majority of content thieves are persons who simply copy and paste your text to other platforms like forums, social-sites, free blogs. So by making it harder, they will think about it twice to search in the source code and put so much effort into it.”

Indeed. This is really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Protecting content from migrating away from a paid membership base because when it does, there is no need to PAY for content anymore.

Quote: “Might I also add that I am seeing this trend on websites where the content is not stellar anyways.”

Well, that’s an asinine thing to say. Next.

Quote: “Its sad people using WordPress dont understand the philosophy of open source. I’m not saying a WordPress users images should be open source, but that it would be awesome if they followed the philosophy of some open sharing. Who knows they might even get a few links from people using their content!”

It’s a paid membership site. Next.

Quote: “There are several ways to bypass those copy protections plugins”

Of course there are. But the point is that they are a line of first defense. All of the after the fact “monitor apps for theft” is time wasted, because once the theft occurs, you could spend eternity chasing it down. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The writing must now be converted to orphaned free content (you are lucky if it is cut and pasted with your name.)

Listen, the world isn’t filled with computer literate people. If it was, then the half of you would likely be out of jobs. Theft deterrent isn’t for smart people, it’s for your everyday garden variety content stealer, you know, the one who writes their own blog and claims that everything is original. That one. Or worse, a complete mirror site where someone else is making money on YOUR content with questionable erectile dysfunction ads with your by-line above (ad naseum.) Copyright protection at least puts a sign on the front yard saying “Don't steal” And if you want to go into the psychology of that, be my guest- but the truth is, the little things do add up to deter people.

Putting the genie back into the bottle is much harder than not letting the genie out in the first place. Not everyone knows or has the time to put in the effort to steal. Use a plug-in. No harm, no foul. And if you do find some harm after all, keep us posted.

Cheers.