Webpage printing issues

[cadman]

I have visited some sites that have set up their pages so they could not be printed or copied in any way . The content was put there to be read while online. But if you wanted a printable version, it could be purchased in the form of a pdf. I was curious if this method turned people off or if they understood and respected the fact that site owners wanted to protect their content from people who wanted to copy it for their own personal gain. I also understand that sometimes people want to be compensated for their efforts. I know that sometimes it is easier for students and others to print a page to use for reference when writing papers or just for research purposes because access to a computer is not always available. Any opinions are appreciated.

Sincerely,

cadman

[Brutha]

I hate sites or PDFs who are really like this. Often when I read something I want to look up a few things.
Maybe there is a concept that I'm not familiar with that I want to look up at wikipedia or a person that I want to google.
Normally I copypaste the name into the google or wikipedia search. I can't do that on pages that don't allow copying.

In addition the only way that works for a website to prevent all browsers from copying the information is to display the text on the website as images which has it's own problems with SEO.

[MartialDev]

All websites can be copied, if you know how. Sometimes, it is difficult, but never impossible. A mass downloading tool like SuperBot makes things easier.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by MartialDev

All websites can be copied, if you know how. Sometimes, it is difficult, but never impossible. A mass downloading tool like SuperBot makes things easier.

Even Adobe Acrobat Professional offers the capacity to download an entire web site and save it.

[cadman]

Thank you very much for the input. The reason I asked was become someone directed me to a site and I wanted to do the same thing Brutha was talking about and found I could not copy/paste anything.

Cadman