Protect templates or CRC check in JS

[shazdeh]

A lot of my clients ask me to design a template and hand it to them so they can launch their own website. But I’ve seen so many times that they abuse it, they change the images and sell it to somebody else. That got me thinking, how can we protect our templates?
Encrypting the HTML is not good since they need to edit the text. Can we protect images? My idea was that we could insert an script into the page that checks the CRC of some of the images. If they edit the image files, CRC changes and the script does not allow the page to render. (JS disable is not an issue)
How can we do that?

[TheDoc]

Do you have a contract?

[shazdeh]

Solving this programmaticly is a lot easier then dealing with contracts and stuff.

[TheDoc]

Ummmmm pretty much the worst thing I’ve ever heard. If you have a client and don’t have a contract, you’re up shit creek.

If you’re talking about selling a template to multiple people, there should be terms and conditions attached to that template.

[mshort1985]

I have to agree with TheDoc, having a contract in place is important.. if you choose to also go a step further and protect your work programmatically you can but I’d still recomend you get a contract drawn up.

[markthema3]

can’t they just remove the scripts that check the page?

[shazdeh]

There’s a contract, but I raised the question as a coding challenge. Why enable them to steal in the first place?
About script removing, what we could do is that mix the JS code for checking images with a little code that renders a part of the page (footer for example, most of the time it doesn’t change from page to page) and then uglify the code. If they remove the script entirely the page looks crippled. JS disabled users are negligible, 1% are they? Who cares for that.

[shazdeh]

any ideas?

[TheDoc]

Certainly doesn’t sound like a ‘coding challenge’. Sounds like a ‘tell me how to fuck over my clients.’

People are always going to find a way to steal your stuff. It is impossible to defend against. Instead of worrying about people stealing your stuff, you can spend time getting more clients, thus negating any potential lost revenue.

[mshort1985]

I think the harder you try to make it “unstealable” the harder your going to make it for the legit visitors to the site.

its the same problem as really really complex captchas, sure the current bots may have a harder time reading them, but for some legit users its just as hard.

anyway all that aside, something you could do is render the images using javascript. so that if they did try to disable it to get past your copy protection they’d be getting rid of the images too.

[chrisburton]

There are other ways to go about this. Not to sound negative but the way you are trying go about it shows a lack of experience and professionalism. Clearly state in your contract under terms and conditions what the guidelines are for something like this. Also establish a license to your templates which help protect you, there are plenty out there. But it sounds to me like you want to make your clients pay for ANY changes other than what you have done. If this is the goal behind what you’re stating, I can confidently say that business will not last long for you.

[Author]

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