• An error with detecting UTF-8 encoded pages was corrected.
• A problem with handling poorly-formed script tags (e.g. <script src>) was resolved.
• The “Disable Shortcuts” feature was completely revamped to support more browsers.

The full list of changes is available here. To upgrade your copy to version 3.2.1, please download and install the setup package from http://www.htmlguard.com/download/hgsetup.exe.

The update is a free maintenance release for all licensed users of previous 3.x versions.

1. Preserve the Evidence

After finding stolen content, your first step should be to preserve the evidence. Having a copy of the infringing website helps to verify the copyright violation in case the website is modified or shut down after contacting the owner. There are several ways to document the copyright infringement:

• Print out a physical copy of the website in question along with its URL and the current date
• Print out a copy of the website to a PDF printer like PDFCreator or PrimoPDF
• Save single web pages with the browser’s “Save as” function
• Download the complete website using an offline downloader like HTTrack or Offline Explorer
• Screen capture the website in the browser via the PrintScreen key or a screenshot tool like Snagit

Additionally you should gather proof that you are the original copyright owner of the content:

• Search the Wayback Machine for archived versions of your web pages
• Search your hard drive or your backup media for the oldest available copy of your stolen content
• Search your notes and emails, etc., for sketches or any other material that proves your ownership of the content

2. Contact the Violator

Often a concise, non-threatening email or phone call is all it takes to get the copied content removed from a website. Many people simply are not aware that they violate the copyright of the author when they copy web content without prior permission. Your first email could look something like this:

Dear Jane Doe:

It has recently come to my attention that copyrighted material from original.com is being used on your website copy.com without attribution or permission.

Your copy: http://www.copy.com/page.html
My original work: http://www.original.com/page.html

I would appreciate if you could please remove the content. Thank you for your prompt attention.

John Smith

In case you can’t find any contact details on the offending website, a WHOIS search on the domain name may help.

3. Contact the Hosting Provider

If the plagiarist doesn’t respond to your friendly request, you should turn to something a bit more drastic. One option is to contact the company that hosts the offending content, advising them to shut down the site.

To Whom It May Concern:

It has recently come to my attention that one of the websites on your web server, copy.com, hosts several instances of plagiarized content. This content is being used without my permission. I’m the original author of the material and have full copyright. The offending works can be found at:

http://www.copy.com/page.html

These should be compared to the original works, which can be found at:

http://www.original.com/page.html

As the owner of the offending website doesn’t respond to my removal requests, I am asking you to suspend the site as soon as possible. Otherwise, I will be obliged to take legal action to enforce my copyright.

Sincerely,

John Smith

An easy way to find out who is hosting a particular website is to use WhoIsHostingThis.

4. Go the Legal Route

If the content thief refuses to remove the disputed material, you should consider hiring an attorney and getting legal advice. The lawyer can at least send an intimidating ‘cease and desist’ letter on formal letterhead, warning the plagiarist of the potential legal implications of his actions.

<img src="watermark.php?image=sample1.jpg&watermark=watermark.png" />

In this article, I will show you how you can easily watermark all images in a certain directory without changing your links to point to a .php file.

Solution Details

Let’s say the images you want to watermark are kept in a sub directory called “gallery” right below your domain folder. At this point, you will have to upload the watermarking script (watermark.php) and the watermark image (watermark.png) to that exact folder and create an .htaccess file containing the following two lines of code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*\.(gif|jp?g|png))$ /gallery/watermark.php?image=$1&watermark=watermark.png [NC]

By using the RewriteRule directory, you are telling the web server that image requests shall be processed by the “watermark.php” script file, as opposed to serving the images directly to the browser. The “watermark.php” script then places the “watermark.png” as a watermark on the requested image. After completing the .htaccess file, it must be uploaded (in ASCII mode) to the “gallery” directory.

Download Sample Files

If you wish to play around a bit with my sample code, I have created a zip file that contains all the necessary files for you to do so.

Additional “Page-napping” Settings

The program now lets you specify exactly what you want to happen when it restricts your page from being framed or used by another website.

You can either provide text to be displayed in a message box, or you may enter some JavaScript code that will be executed by the browser.

Integrated Crash Reporter

Another addition to HTML Guard is a function for sending bug reports when errors crash the program.

I really hope you never have to deal with this function!

Full Release Notes

A detailed list of changes is included as part of HTML Guard’s help file and is available here.