I’ve created a gallery of images I need to protect. How do I do this?
I want to add text as a caption that opens up with the image when clicked. How do I do this? TIA
I see that, but the option strangely isn’t available for a gallery of images !?
It’s a common request: protect images on a website from being downloaded or copied. While blocking right-click can deter casual users, it’s important to understand that it doesn’t truly secure your images. Web browsers inherently download all page assets, including images, so they can display them. This means anyone with basic knowledge of developer tools or access to the browser’s cache can still retrieve your images.
Instead of relying on “image protection,” consider watermarking your images or ensuring they’re resized and optimized for the web. This approach makes them less valuable for unauthorised use while still serving their purpose on your site.
Nope, you can easily view the source of any website to copy the text. Did you also know iOS and MacOS have a feature that lets you copy text from a screenshot? And that’s not even mentioning the use of tools like ChatGPT…
Agree, it’s impossible to protect anything. I use Squash for watermarks and a QR code, but with AI photo apps they are easy to remove.
And many people don’t care about watermarks. Two heavily watermarked photos on Facebook ended up in a Chinese TikTok video and they also taged the page, no shame there - https://www.facebook.com/burano.venice.italy
To make it a bit more harder for people to download images, try using them as a background image in an element rather than a main <img> tag. The downside is that handling aspect ratios can be difficult, but there are ways around it.
Just remember that anyone can still take a screenshot. 
I use that for individual images, but my issue was when building a Gallery, there is no such option. I have ditched the gallery and am building everything in grid with lightbox. Even so, I cannot get lightbox to include any captions….
Yes, there’s no guaranteed way to protect online images.
@elementsbot can you go into more detail about the current state of online image protection on the web? and do you agree it’s impossible now?
Alright, gather around, folks! It’s time for the lowdown on online image protection! 
The Reality of Image Protection
Dan is right — there’s no surefire way to prevent images from being downloaded or copied once they’re on the web. Here’s why:
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Web Browsers Need Access: Browsers download all the assets of a webpage (including images) to display them. This makes it relatively easy for anyone with basic browser tools or a sly right-click to grab those images.
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Screenshots and Snipping Tools: Even if right-clicking is disabled, anyone can take a screenshot or use various tools to capture what’s on their screen.
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Advanced Techniques:
- AI Tools: These days, AI can cleverly remove watermarks or even enhance images, potentially diminishing traditional watermarking efforts.
- Viewing Source Code: Text and images can often be extracted directly from a site’s source code by the more tech-savvy individuals.
Mitigating the Risks
While complete protection is challenging (read: borderline impossible), you can still employ some strategies to make unauthorized use more difficult:
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Watermarking & Resizing: Adding a watermark and resizing images (using tools like Squash) can deter some people, though as PLM said, AI can sometimes bypass these methods.
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Using Background Images: MultiThemes mentioned placing images as background elements instead of using
<img>tags. This can slow down casual download efforts (though aspect ratios can be tricky
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Legal Measures & Copyright: While not tech-based, making it clear that your content is copyrighted can deter some users and give you a legal leg up if your content is misused.
At the end of the day, while you can deter some, the cunning one’s might still find workarounds. If you have specific questions about implementing any of these protections with Elements, just give me a shout! Remember, the web is like the Wild West for images… a bit chaotic, never fully secure, but always exciting! 
Hi there, I started using elements in February and am experiencing the same problem. Am just wondering whether you received an answer from anyone?
The image protection option is available in Gallery Pro in the Elements Store!
The real point of putting a prevention on easy/direct copying has to do with legal response. Assuming your images are registered with the Copyright Office, someone who uses them by bypassing the protection has the burden of proof that they have the right to use it, and is essentially considered guilty because they would have had to knowingly invoke a bypass. This allows for both real damages and punitive damages to be claimed by you.
For images that aren’t registered, there’s little point in pursuing legal action, as you could only recover real damages, and because of stock photos being so cheap these days, the real damage wouldn’t amount to enough to pursue.
Here in the US, I’ll remind everyone that our founding fathers intended for all works to eventually become public domain. The point of registering a Copyright was to give the creator time to benefit from the creation. The act of not claiming Copyright and/or registering Copyright could be said to be “acting in the public domain.”
However, I’ll also point out that Web sites can’t be registered for Copyright here in the US outside of “news sites”, which have to be registered each month. (A “news website” is a website that is designed to be a primary source of written information on current events, either local, national, or international in scope, that contains a broad range of news on all subjects and activities and is not limited to any specific subject matter.) Thus, you need to register your image Copyrights to have any protection.
In UK there is no need to register a copyright as its automatic if you can prove date of prior use. The IPO - our organisation for register TM/Patents/Design Registration etc, is governed by the Berne Convention. Therefore for e.g. a US Copyright, if infringed, can take legal action in UK courts to enforce your rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA).
Images are no different, no need for registration but using someone else’s photo on social media or a website without permission can lead to high-risk copyright infringement, regardless of whether you know it is protected.
AI is a totally different ball game as it is not entirely clear if this protection applies to all AI outputs, and the law is currently under review to clarify how these works fit within the broader framework. The ability to enforce copyright may be subject to the terms of service of the AI platform used therefore making it nigh impossible at the moment to prevent AI generated images being copied/changed from original artist.