Protection against ripping?

I just registered on this site with the hope of selling some templates over my summer break. I was looking around some template demos today, and I was astounded to see there is absolutely no protection against website ripping on a lot of the HTML +CSS templates! This means that by using a simple tool, which I shall not name, random people can download whole templates without paying a cent! Even on the Wordpress themes, anybody can add some words to the giver URL , and use a directory downloader and steal the template!

Is there no protection against such things? I recommend a water-marking system, such as the one seen on TemplateMonster.

I think that the author is responsable of their protection. You can use free services as http://www.iwebtool.com/tools/ to protect your code.

@Magix_Soni: Frankly, template monster’s obtrusive watermarking/limited preview system is exactly why they don’t sell a lot – it’s annoying and it makes me feel like I’m walking through the website blindfolded in a bubble suit. I happen to use varying levels of encryption on my products that prevents entry level click & rip programs, but anyone who’s willing to rip a site rather than drop 10 or 15 bucks isn’t my target market anyways – they’re chumps. Besides, ripping a live preview often doesn’t grab all of the files – especially when you run on a reliable webhost that blocks directory downloads…. and it certainly won’t allow the ripper to grab the PSD source files, documentation, support and other value add-ons that come with each Theme Forest download. I hope that provides a little more perspective on the matter… I’d certainly like to see a surefire, unobtrusive anti-piracy system here (and watermarking might be the way), but I’m strongly against anything that will prevent users from seeing what they are potentially buying the way that templatemonster does in many of their templates. Cheers!

Hi,

I was once thinking of screencasts instead of live previews, say 5 minutes, with or without narration.

Hi, I was once thinking of screencasts instead of live previews, say 5 minutes, with or without narration.

This is not an option… I think is more valuable for the customers to see it in action. Protect the code with a free tool.

I’m using this along with this

I think that this post may be relevant and helpful while were on the topic

http://blog.themeforest.net/general/options-for-protecting-your-themes/

Anyone knows a good HTML protection software for Mac? I used HTML protector on PC. Something like that would do.

I don’t have any items on ThemeForest yet but here’s my 2 cents.

Any HTML encrypters have a decrypter counterpart right there on the first of page of Google Search. Encrypting your code probably gives the pirate more of an accomplished feeling when he finally steals your work.

Personally, I wouldn’t encrypt my code – it’s not going to stop them anyway – but rather attract possibly customers by showing my clean, indented, and well-commented code.

Anyone who steals the templates won’t pay for it anyway, so it’s not like I’m losing sales.

I do understand where people are coming from; it’s not fair at all that quite a few people out there are getting your hard work for free but that’s life.

I don’t have any items on ThemeForest yet but here’s my 2 cents.

Any HTML encrypters have a decrypter counterpart right there on the first of page of Google Search. Encrypting your code probably gives the pirate more of an accomplished feeling when he finally steals your work.

Personally, I wouldn’t encrypt my code – it’s not going to stop them anyway – but rather attract possibly customers by showing my clean, indented, and well-commented code.

Anyone who steals the templates won’t pay for it anyway, so it’s not like I’m losing sales.

I do understand where people are coming from; it’s not fair at all that quite a few people out there are getting your hard work for free but that’s life.

I’m with you on your comments. We’ve discussed this many times on this site. Like you said, bottom line is if they want it, they will take it.

I’m not going to waste extra time and effort to try and stop someone from stealing my work. Like you said, if they can’t steal it they wont buy it anyways so you are not losing anything.

I’d love to have a sure fire way to stop people but it’s not out there.