JavaScript Forum

**Physicsguy** · 06-22-2010, 10:28 PM

Hey guys,

I've seen this come up quite a bit, and I thought I'd post this here to help all of you.

To disable text selection:
Simply add

Code:

<body onselectstart="return false">

to your page. That's it. Simple as that.

Problem with this code
Crafty users can still right-click - view source, then copy it out from there. Also if they have Javascript disabled, they can get around it. You can't disable right click, and it's pointless because they can just go to the main menu and click 'View Source' from there

Hope this helps you in any way possible from the dumber content thieves

**stbuchok** · 06-23-2010, 07:32 AM

Also, as far as I can tell this is an IE specific event which means it won't work in any other browser. Not to mention this is absolutely pointless to do. If you don't want your content to be copied, don't put it up on the internet or use Silverlight or Flash (which can only make it harder to copy, not impossible).

**Physicsguy** · 06-23-2010, 10:05 AM

Nope, it works on all browsers.

And I didn't say this wasn't stupid. It is.

This COULD be useful for a drag n' drop script, where you select text while you're dragging a box.

**stbuchok** · 06-23-2010, 10:45 AM

If you put the following code into an html file you will notice that it works in IE (also works in chrome) but not FF (I tested against 3.6.3). So as I said, it won't work in FireFox.

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body onselectstart="alert();">

This is some text I'm trying to copy.

</body>
</html>

**Physicsguy** · 06-23-2010, 10:46 AM

Ah, I never tested it in FF :O Right?

For some strange reason I develop in Chrome, which is stupid because it 'renders' javascript very stupidly