[1652] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: preventing downloading
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Brennen)
Fri Mar 15 05:06:08 1996
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 01:15:02 -0600 (CST)
From: Michael Brennen <mbrennen@fni.com>
To: matt jackson <mattj@indiana.edu>
cc: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.HPP.3.91.960314155856.11577C-100000@juliet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
On Thu, 14 Mar 1996, matt jackson wrote:
> I am a doctoral student at Indiana Univ. doing research on copyright and
> the Internet. This may be a stupid question, but...
>
> Is it possible to create a Web site where users can view documents but
> they cannot download or print anything without authorization?
The very act of accessing a page or graphic causes it to be downloaded to
the viewing computer. It is not viewed on the remote machine; a copy is
loaded to the local machine for viewing.
> To reveal my ignorance even further, it seems to me that if one created a
> new generation of Web browsers that would look for a special code before
> allowing a "save" or "print" option, this would work. My more
> knowledgeable friends say that once the document is in the user's RAM (as
> required in order to view it in the first place), nothing can stop them
> from saving or printing it. Are they right?
Today that is true. I'm sure that technology will be developed to address
some of this. It is already happening with digital sound records, though
admittedly that is a different matter than text and graphics.
-- Michael
