image "protection"

Here's a particularly annoying image protection scheme. Just clicking -- not even right-clicking -- on the image issues an accusation of theft, after which all the "protected" images disappear.

Not that I expect it to do much good, but I sent them the following e-mail:

While researching Thylacines, I came across your web site. It's very interesting. However, you should know about the shortcomings of a script on your site.

I simply clicked on an image, wondering whether it was a link, and I was accused of trying to steal it. I didn't even right-click on it. All the images then disappeared from the page.

Not only is it an annoyance and an insult to the user, but it also doesn't work. In less than a minute of examining the HTML source, I was able to find the URLs of the "protected" images. If I had wanted to, I could have easily saved them to my computer:

*** list of URLs deleted for this post so they can't accuse me of distributing copyrighted material. ***

I recommend that if you paid money for this "image protect" script on your site, you seek a refund. Image protection schemes like this serve only to annoy legitimate users. The people who want to misuse copyrighted material are not deterred.