genny, you just are not getting it. you vote for the same reasons i do...yes, i vote. but, if someone tells 15 or 20 friends from a "list" to drop by and vote....well, heyas...they can beat the "artist of the year" in the 20. corruption is corruption. i do this for a living....well, mainly ads. before all of the new folks came to this site, most of us, who posted, here "did this for a living". sorry, if i am just a dinosaur from the old days when this site was folks trying to earn a buck from 3d. it is so much more swell, now,with tubers, rigged contests, and, what have you. if it is acceptable to the masses, why should i query it.... ANTON...lissen up....that's how you make folks angry, as well.

Poppi...right now I'm a stay at home because I lost my job recently to a company reorganization, in fact 4000 others in my company had the same thing happen to them. When I'm not out looking for another job, or sending resumes, I'm doing something not only creative but also fun like genny says. In fact, I've started to develop some textures for clothing items, to help supplement my Poser appetite and to downright make a little extra income. Not as to the Hot 20, that's been in contention about once a month...it's not going to change. However, I know of several lists whose members do vote for others to have them make the Top20. Some are well deserved, some are IMHO not, but it's small stuff, and I've learned not to sweat the small stuff, and besides it's nothing I can change, so quite frankly unless somebody even told me that I was in the Poser Hot 20 I wouldn't know it. I don't even go there anymore. I look at the thumbnails, and comment on those that intrigue me or grab me in some way to warrant a further look.

Forgive me, Poppi.......but I really don't think, or feel that being in the top 20 has anything to do with this thread? I don't know who does or does not do this for a living......as........I never had that opportunity given to me when I was growing up....Yes.......get into computers...that is the way of the future..........HA!....that my friend........was not heard of when I was a kid! Kudos to those of you who have done this, and I will gladly purchase your items when my heart desires.......but that is because I have worked many years doing a job that I used to love, but because of economic times.......it is now a chore. My only solice is, that I have the money.....and if I want it, I can have it.....but it really has nothing to do with the person ever being in the top "20" .......that is what you need to see. (: I, as a person who may buy your goods, only buys it because that is what I am looking for........not because you made the top 20, To be quite honest.....I don't even visit the galleries everyday, so I really do miss alot. (: Genny

Poppi, I understand what you're saying. I just don't know if there's really anything to be done about it. And people may not realize what you're refering to with the H20 and the list. That did come up several months ago so there may be some confusion goin on here.

I'm with you dialyn...now it's a H20 debate....

This has wandered away from the orginal point. The orginal post, has served it's purpose and thank you all for your support. And the Very Fact some people sure missed was I was told, there is A-LOT OF our ARTIST here stuff being Passed around in these groups. I'm suppose to get some more pictures and I will open a new post and put them up. If thats ok with the Mods. Can we somehow stop right click copy from our Posts???

That would be Great, Turtle..........I apologize for going off the subject as I think your original post was very valid and I am sure more artists are unaware of whats happening. Take care and happy holiday. Genny

Turtle, I think there is something that can be done with the code for a web site that stops the right click option but I don't know enough about web design to give you details. I just know it is possible 'cos that's what my partner did on our web site. Catlin

It's not so much stopping the theft on individual websites, but theft here from our images at Renderosity.

Thats a pretty good idea catlin_mc except its pretty easy to get around that . One way is to drop and drag the photo into a browser and the new 6.0 internet explorer now pops up a doohicky in the uper left corner ( Looks like a mini tool bar ) that lets you save anyways reguardless of the codeing it only disables the right click save.

And if there was a way to even disable that, you'd have to consider that some folks are clever enough to use the screen capture abilities of their 2D program. The best you could do is make a tube of your own (a logo of some sorts) that you could use to watermark your images. Fight fire with fire.

actually, if we were allowed to upload in a format that supports layers...psd, for example....well, we could all put a transparent layer over our images, if we wanted to. i do believe...correct me if i am wrong...that in that format, right clicking on a pic would only save the top layer.

Poppi that is a great idea, I think you are right on this and it is such a simple way of doing it. It is just unfortunate that jpg won't keep the layers since that is the most used format. Catlin

The main problem with that format is that it would not be compressed, and of course the file sizes would be 10 times what they are now. But an great idea!

PSD wouldn't show in a browser, it would have to be downloaded and viewed in another program.

Attached Link: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~lcushing/pdfs/ImagePro.pdf

I don't think there is an easy way to prevent a graphic from being stolen is not to post it. I have a one line Javascript that will re-enable right-click on pages that have it disabled. There are utilities that will chop an image up and assemble them to look like a single image but that can be circumvented as well. The only (seemingly) workable solution I've seen is a product like the Mirage I mentioned earlier which uses a complicated encryption scheme. Even technology like digital watermarking would probably not be applicable when the image is going to be sliced up for tubes. The thrust of DRM security seems to be understandably aimed at protecting music and video data. You can reduce the resolution of an image to make it less attractive, display it as greyscale or place an obtrusive watermark on it but none of those is really desirable if your purpose is to show of the image in the first place. I've read that you can place a transparent HTML layer over a page which is somewhat akin to using the PSD layer but that to can be gotten around. Perhaps there's some other technique, but I haven't seen it. Beyond that, screen capture, searching the cache or some other method can be used to retrieve the image. The best that you can probably do for free is to try to make it inconvenient enough to discourage the casual image thief. reference: Protection of Digital Images on the Web

There's really no way to stop the truly determined jerks. Protection methods are... well, isn't there a saying that locks are to keep honest people honest? This is the first time in US history that the average citizen is coming up against copyright law, and if the lawyers and courts don't understand it completely, you can bet that they don't. I see everything from authors who have a fit if you actually MAKE something from the book of craft patterns they sell, to people like these tubers (potatoheads? slaps self sorry) who think anything that isn't nailed down and on fire is fair game. And before I go too far off into tangentland, my point ultimately is that you have the people who don't know and the people who don't care. You're going to be hard pressed to stop the people who don't care. Right-click disabling, transparent overlays, mouse-overs, slicing images; they know the ways around them. Those methods only really stop the people who don't know, the ones who go "ooh, pretty" and right-click save without realizing that it is a copyright violation. And each method will probably stop them that one time, but wouldn't it be better to educate them to stop them always? All rightie, I know that was a long way to walk for my suggestion. Anyway, my suggestion is that instead of or at least in addition to using those other methods, on the top of your webpage (unfortunately this isn't as practical in the galleries), put a link to one of the good non-accusatory "what is copyright?" sites and put a little blurb along the lines of: "Please do not save images off of my site. I have had problems with people taking them, turning parts of them into PSP tubes, and passing them on. Even if they aren't making money off of it, it is still against the law; they don't have to make a profit to violate my copyright. It isn't fair use; fair use in legal terms means a critique or analysis of my image, and nothing else. For more information on copyright, please see the above link. Please help me share my work without being stolen from."

oh please......I put all that stuff on all my site pages and when my front page was on someone else's page, I still got the "my daughter took them and gave them to me" crap.... I feel like saying to them, Oh, so you not only don't teach your kids NOT to steal but show them how to use what they've stolen, right?"

puts hands up Sorry. Just wanted to give people the benefit of a doubt. My mistake.

FyreSpiryt, I agree with you 100%. It's not much solace to those who feel they are being ripped off but the reality of the situation still has to be faced. Given the absence of an affordable technical solution and the impracticality of a legal one for most people, the only sure-fire remedy is to simply not to display their images. The seductive ease with which images can be copied mis only part of the problem. I think there is a sense, perhaps unconscious, that anything displayed on one's computer screen is fair game. Most people wouldn't think twice about copying a soap opera and giving it to a friend. True, the issues may not be the same but I think the attitudes are similar. As you point out, copyright is not something most people have dealt with, though I'm not sure more education would necessarily help. Simply put, I think perhaps many people are acting from what they perceive as a moral rather than a legal standpoint and they don't see the harm in taking a piece of an image and using it. They don't see any financial harm being done and Lord knows this is a society where money rules. I t may sound crazy but maybe putting a PayPal link on your page and setting a price for an image (in addition to some other measures like right-click prevention) might actually discourage a few people since they'd feel like they were really stealing. In the end, appealing to people's sense of fairness and responsibility is perhaps the only immediate answer. No, it will not stop every image thief, but nothing else is likely to do so either. It is far from a perfect solution but rejecting it out of hand is no solution at all.