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JavaScript User Prohibitions Are Like Content DRM, But Even Less Effective (teleread.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-cut-and-paste dept.

Robotech_Master writes: It always puzzles me whenever I run across a post somewhere that uses JavaScript to try to prevent me from copying and pasting text, or even viewing the source. These measures are simple enough to bypass just by disabling JavaScript in my browser. It seems like these measures are very similar to the DRM publishers insist on slapping onto e-books and movie discs—easy to defeat, but they just keep throwing them on anyway because they might inconvenience a few people.

7 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, but it's the effort to deter that counts. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nobody expects a "No Trespassing" sign to stop anybody from really doing anything they shouldn't, heck, you shouldn't expect your home locks to stop a burglar, and no, nobody thinks a "No Guns allowed" sign stops anybody with firearms.

    But once you say "Stop, don't do it" then anybody making the effort to continue, no matter how trivial, has made an intentional action on their part.

    1. Re:Ah, but it's the effort to deter that counts. by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You might have been right if the DRM applied aligns 100% with legal boundaries. That is, allow what's legal and prevent illegal uses. And keeps doing so as circumstances / place / time changes.

      But in practice, it never does. DRM on an e-book that prevents copying period, also prevents copying small snippets to use as quote. Which is perfectly legal - see "fair use".

      Unlike author claims, the DRM on Blu-rays is far from broken. If it were, playing them on open source operating systems like Linux would be as easy as playing DVD's on there. But that's not the case. There's databases of per-disk decoding keys floating around. There's libraries that emulate some sort of virtual machine that's built into 'authorised' playback devices. There's other libraries that cut through parts of the DRM bullshit, or attempt to streamline the process.
      But all of these are kludges, there's no 100% guarantee that a random Blu-ray will play (using open source, at the moment), and it's a lot of hassle for users who are just trying to play discs they legally purchased. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the DRM on Blu-rays will be as irrelevant as that on DVD's, but we're not there yet and in any case it doesn't change the annoyance factor one bit.
      What's more: these issues mostly bother legal users, those who download movies illegally couldn't care less. But the DRM will still be in place as long as the discs itself. Regardless of legalities.

      There's countless examples like that. The technical measures are practically never capable of following legal developments, nor do they adapt to local jurisdiction. Or have a built-in kill switch that 'frees' a product when legal restrictions end. In my personal opinion: DRM simply lowers the value of products that it's applied to, PERIOD. Sometimes to the point of making those products worthless. Some DRM is just more annoying or difficult to circumvent than others.

  2. Please don't jump all over Anne R Allen's blog... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... telling her how dumb this is. She knows, she didn't put those wheels into motion herself, and she sounds pretty gutted and apologetic.

    Play nice.

  3. "Few"? by Ixokai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you underestimate how many people this sort of thing stops. Yeah, it won't stop most techheads, but the inconvenience is enough to stop most people. Hell, most people don't even know you can turn off javascript. Most people don't even know what javascript is.

    That's sufficient for their purposes, really. They can't stop everyone, no system is perfect, its enough for them to minimize it.

  4. Re:How do you stop someone from viewing the source by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who says you're using a browser to view or render a web page's contents?

  5. Re:JavaScript. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    lolololol surely not even slashdotters of 2015 are this retarded?

  6. Re:JavaScript. by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some programmers weren't even born 20 years ago. New people will make old mistakes because they haven't learned about them yet.