How Do I Copy Ahow Do I Copy A Copy Protected Web Page Copy Protected Web Page

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!
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How do I copy a copy protected

web page?
Assuming your intent is legal - or at least moral - it's
not hard to copy content from a web page that
attempts to prevent it.
//
How do I copy/paste from sites that dont permit it?

There is info Id liketo send to a friend without a
computer but has a machine that onlysends/receives plain

text. I want to send her stuff from this site as anexample but
they dont permit copying/pasting. Is there anyway around
that?
https://askleo.com/how_do_i_copy_a_copy_protected_web_pa... 2015-11-08
Page 2 of 21
As you might expect, the website in question is trying to protect

itscontent from theft. They have valuable information and Im sure that
people tryto steal and republish their content frequently. That is, of
course, quiteillegal and a violation of international copyright law.
So Ill assume thats NOT what you have in mind. (Though technically
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evenwhat you have in mind while morally acceptable in my opinion

may still bein violation of that law.)
Copy protection on websites be it just for pictures or for entire pages

ofcontent is in my opinion pretty close to useless. It keeps honest
peoplehonest and thats about as far as it goes.
Web pages, emails, whatever: if it can be seen, it can be copied.
Above Board Techniques

By Above Board all I really mean is using normal website behaviour to
gainaccess to the text in ways that perhaps the web site owner hadnt
thought toprevent yet.
The most common: printing.
In this case, if you
install a print-toPDF printer driver
such as
PDFCreator and
if it can be seen, it can be
copied.
print that page to

create a PDF, two
interesting things happen:
You have a nice PDF of the page. Perhaps that might be enough to
get yourfriend a copy of the page. Certainly it has the highest
Page 3 of 21
fidelity in thatitll include all the formatting and images as the

original web page.
That PDF may, itself, have copy enabled. In my test of the website
inquestion, I was able to print to PDF, and then select the desired
text from thePDF and copy it elsewhere.
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Another approach is to use the File -> Save As option in the

browserwhen viewing the page, and save it as plain text format. The
results may varyfrom browser to browser, but youre likely to get a good
starting point from
which you can then copy the desired text.
Yet another approach is to use the
View Source option available in
mostbrowsers which will allow you to
view the underlying HTML for the page,
andcopy out the relevant content as
needed. Youll want to clean up the
results,though, removing the HTML
mark-up to make the results readable.
Underground Techniques
By underground I mean actually taking steps to actively disable
whatevercopy protection has been placed on the web page or image.
Two techniques come to mind:
Disable Javascript. Many sites will use Javascript to implement
copyprotection. Disabling Javascript, in turn, disables the copy
protectioncompletely. (That happened to be the case with the
example site. It alsodisabled a number of popup ads as a bonus.)
The easiest way is to use Firefoxand the NoScript plugin which
allows you enable or disableJavascript on a site-by-site basis.
Page 4 of 21
Disable or circumvent CSS. CSS, for Cascading Style Sheets, is

actually anincredibly powerful approach to defining web page look
and feel and behaviour.Using CSS its quite possible to disable or
modify the way web pages behave.Its also easy to turn off: in
FireFox click on View,Page Style and then click on No Style.
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Thepage will be re-rendered without CSS and the result, which

typically visuallyunappealing, may well be copy-able.
There may be other approaches as well, depending on the specific
techniquesused to disable copying, but those are probably the 95%
solution.
Off The Wall Techniques

Off the wall as in things that sound really stupid or something
youdnever think of, but are last resort measures.
If nothing else theyre proof of my original statement: if it can be seen,it
can be copied.
Take a picture. Get your digital camera and take a pictureof the
screen. Instant copy.
Take a screen shot. Tools likeSnagIt will not only automatically
page down to get animage of the entire page (in perfect
resolution, unlike your camera), but italso includes a copy text
options that may well copy text for which traditional clipboard copy
has been disabled.
OCR. Short for Optical Character Recognition, OCR toolscan take
that picture of a web page (ideally the screen shot since it has
thebest quality) and extract from it all the visible text as editable
text.
There are probably more odd and unique ways that Im not thinking of.
Page 5 of 21
If It Can Be Seen, It Can Be Copied.

I present this not as a how to for people wanting to make illegal
copiesof web sites, or even for people who want to do more acceptable
things likeshare otherwise inaccessible content with others.
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My intent here is really to point out the futility of copy protection

schemes.
If you must present your information in a way that humans can read,
listenor watch it then there exists a way for that content to be copied.
Placingroadblocks just punishes those who would view or use your
content in ways thatare, ultimately, only beneficial to you without
stopping those who would stealit anyway.
If someone can see it, they can copy it, forward it, publish it, whatever.
Thats simply the nature of todays technology.
Not that they should, but they can.
Read more:
Why cantI copy/paste out of a PDF document? PDF format is an
excellent way to sharedocuments knowing that theyll display the
same regardless of where viewed. Youcan do more, sometimes.
How do Icopy an entire web page? Copying a web page to archive or
read later is notterribly difficult, but getting everything to copy as
you see it can be achallenge.
Could CopyProtection be Doomed? tech and geekier news outlets
were all abuzzabout a number, and how that number was being
posted in literally thousands ofplaces around the internet in
defiance of those wanting to keep that numbersecret.
Posted: July 4, 2010 In: Internet

Shortlink: https://askleo.com/4360
TAGS:
COPY/PASTE
Page 6 of 21
WEBSITE
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About Leo
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he was required to
take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at
Microsoft soon followed. After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as
a place for answers to common computer and technical questions. More about
Leo.
Comments
Steven
July 5, 2010 at 5:43 am
Why not just press the print screen button and paste it into painbrush, and
then save the file.
That gets you a picture of the text, but not edittable text that you
could reformat and perhaps copy into word or notepad. (Also fails if
the text goes below the bottom of the screen.)
06-Jul-2010
Page 7 of 21
REPLY
Deborah
July 5, 2010 at 11:03 am
This usually works

http://www.pdfmyurl.com
REPLY
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Steven
July 5, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I like that idea, it turned http://askleo.com into a pdf file.

REPLY
Ted
July 6, 2010 at 8:39 am
Use the printscreen key on your keyboard. Then open Paint and paste.
Rename and save in whatever format you desire. You can edit the file later, or
keep it entirely, complete with webpage url
REPLY
Steve Curling
July 6, 2010 at 9:00 am
Hi Leo,
I have used Snagit for years and have never found anything it wouldnt copy
including videos.
Thanks,
Steve
REPLY
Dave
July 6, 2010 at 9:43 am
Got http://www.imtoolpack.com and download it.

You can then copy as much of any page you desire.
Save the copied file and do what you want with it.
Free download, free advice !!!
REPLY

Douglas Gross
Page 8 of 21
July 6, 2010 at 9:45 am
Turning off CSS may stop JavaScript from using CSS class names and IDs, but
if you are already going to turn JavaScript off you dont need to turn off CSS.
Basically, the PDF solution is the best, because the only other choice is to
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learn how to remove the code for copyright protection. I am surprised

anyone uses such techniques, because they are very easily circumvented.
What the webmasters of such sites need to really do is put such material in a
secured PDF, and any amount of information that is more than very brief
belongs in a PDF instead of on a web page anyway.
REPLY
Doclocke
July 6, 2010 at 10:13 am
Anyone who uses either Windows Vista or Windows 7 had a nifty utility called
Snipping Tool that simplifies copying of any part of what is displayed on the
monitor. Try it, youll like it.
REPLY
Nicholas Gimbrone
July 6, 2010 at 11:54 am
In some very real sense, this is exactly the sort of sharing that digital
restrictions management is aimed at stopping text is just the degenerate
case of a form of digital media is all. An effort to insure that only the
immediate end consumer of digital data may view that digital data (and
perhaps also add time or count limits on such consumption).
REPLY
Paul Mierop
July 6, 2010 at 1:08 pm
The easiest way I found was to highlight all the Text and copy with Ctrl-C and
paste it in a new Word document and make all the changes I want, or just
print it.
Page 9 of 21
The whole point here is that your Ctrl+C approach has been disabled
by the web page author.
07-Jul-2010
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REPLY
5
DSU
July 6, 2010 at 1:18 pm
With Firefox you dont need to turn off javascript. Simply Click on (for
windows) Tool> Options > Content > Advanced and uncheck Disable or
Replace context menus.
REPLY
Jose Prudencio
July 6, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Theres a variant for the copy as solution. One should copy all the page to a
file in a local directory and then open it with a HTML editing program. After
this, just select and copy the desired text to paste it elsewhere. I did it a
couple of times successfully.
REPLY
John
July 6, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Ashampoo make a program called Snap, i think they are up to version 4 now.
and what it can not do is not worth mentioning!
REPLY
James
July 7, 2010 at 3:07 am
Has any noticed has a machine that only sends/receives plain text?
I dont see that you can do much better than ctrl-A, ctrl-C, ctrl-V, to copy all
the text into a text editor.
Page 10 of 21
Of course, youve lost all the formatting, and you have to delete all the stuff
you dont want, but at least youve got plain text.
The point of the article was that CTRL+C for copy had been disabled
by the website author.
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07-Jul-2010
5
REPLY
Petrus
July 7, 2010 at 5:24 am
The easiest way to copy anything that you can see on your computer screen is
by downloading and using a small program called Fast Stone Capture .I use
it on a daily basis and has become very attached to it.
REPLY
Wheatridge
July 7, 2010 at 7:39 am
Leo, you forgot the absolute easiest way to copy that page. All someone has
to do is to use that prtScrn button that has been on computers since the
beginning in the 1970s. Using Ctrl PrtScn the computer places a copy of the
screen into your memory. Then open a graphics program and past that
immage. Resize, etc and save it as a .jpg, etc.
Unfortunately that only gets you a picture of the page, not the text
that the questioner was asking for. (And of course if the page is longer
than a single screen it doesnt get the whole thing.)
08-Jul-2010
REPLY

Web Extremist
Page 11 of 21
December 1, 2014 at 6:44 am
IF its txt the questioner need :

Using the PrntScreen Key Formular:
Procedure: (windows environment)
1) Ctrl + PrntScr to copy screen in clipboard. or wherver. what matters
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is, you got it captured!!

2) Open run.
3) type mspaint and press enter. Ms Paint will open (would be surprised
if you expected anything different program)
4) Paste Image
5) Save Image (u can it as my name: WebExtremist)
IF its image the questioner want, END!!
To get txt:
1) Open the saved image using Microsoft Onenote
2) Right click the image (inside the onenote). there it is: extract text
from image.
If page too long, scroll and take different shots.and set the process in
loop..whiles a shot remain
REPLY
Charlie Griffith
July 8, 2010 at 1:11 pm
This method can also be tried

Im using Win 7 Ultimate (if that is significant) .and I copied (Control+C)
some letters/comments from a newspaper site into Word, then moved that
file into Open Office, and from Open Office I sent it in PDF form to myself as
an email.
Brilliant?.probably not, but it worked.previously the comments on that
website did not survive emailing, but somehow the insertion of Word and
Open Office as middle-steps eliminated any anti-copying measures.
Page 12 of 21
Cheers.
This also misses the point of the article, where CTRL+C has been
disabled by the website author.
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09-Jul-2010
REPLY
James
July 9, 2010 at 6:22 am
Another easy way is to use a C++ or vbs script to access the email or the web
page, there are countless SMTP and HTML libraries out there, and if its a
simple web page, I even have native C++ and C# code that can do it without
the use of a library.
You can also right click-> view page source, and then extract whatever you
can from that. However, CSS and frames can be used to prevent you from
getting any useful info out of that.
REPLY
Lala
July 11, 2010 at 1:05 am
an advance thank if i may require it anytime(but without ill intention)

REPLY
Steve From Montreal
July 12, 2010 at 5:11 pm
As a web developer I get this question all the time I want to put my
pictures/text/pdf files/whatever on the Internet, but I dont want people to
copy them
To which I always respond Then you shouldnt be putting it on the Internet!
Page 13 of 21
In the end we usually compromise for some basic protection from novice
users.
But I will keep this link to demonstrate how many different ways you can get
around copy protection.
14
(shameless plug, hope its OK: {URL removed}
Shares
REPLY
Peter
June 2, 2015 at 6:20 pm
Steve, I agree.
The web was initially created as a place without borders or political
interference for people to share by that guy from the UK.
But we have foolishly allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked into
controls by so called international copyright laws which is actually NOT
international and applies mostly to poor overly legislated and
controlled US citizens and its followers.
Yes, it can be frustrating to have people steal content, but only
because we think of it as stealing because we think we own it.
Once we put it on the web it is no longer ours.
That is how it should be, the world needs to be able to share
information freely and easily without ANY restrictions.
If you dont want it shared, then dont use the Internet.
REPLY
Allabarra
July 13, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Another useful copy mechanism is using ALT + printscreen to copy an open

box within a page, without copying the rest of the whole page behind. You
can then paste this into whatever other program you use.
REPLY

Need Your Help!
Page 14 of 21
December 21, 2010 at 10:43 am
Hey Leo, thank you for your guide, but I cant still copy texts from some sites,
for example: moon.vn. They use JS code to load the page, so if I disable JS, its
also unable to load the text inside, too. I used Opera to disable JS after page
is loaded, but theyre no longer allow Opera. Is there anyway to workaround
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here?
Thanks so much!
REPLY
Dana Childs
March 30, 2011 at 1:25 am
Snagitbest new software toy! Love it! Thanks for the tip! All the other
tricks which I already knew about did not worktried Snagit and it worked
for getting the information I needed from a webpage. All I wanted to do was
print the page so I could have the info in front of me for comparison when I
make phone calls. Seems like the site I was looking at is being little too
overly cautious with protecting their information, not sure why. Like you
saidif you can see it, they can copy it and use it. But with regards to Snagit,
looks like it may have some other great uses as well. Thanks again!
REPLY
Kendo
August 3, 2011 at 12:01 am
Most copy protection techniques are not very secure, but there are some that
cannot be exploited at all. For example ArtistScope provide a Site Protection
System (ASPS) which uses a custom web browser, which unlike all other web
browsers, has been designed to protect page media rather than expose it.
Im not at all familiar with the technology you mention, but my first
reaction: Ill bet I could copy everything using screen capture, or
screen capture over remote access. Basically my position remains: if
you can see it, it can be copied.
Page 15 of 21
04-Aug-2011
REPLY
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Ricky
August 23, 2011 at 6:02 am
Thanks dude Really useful .. i have a doubt , if i disable javascript , will the
website admin find this trick that we are using this facilities (copy & paste)???
Pls help me Again Thanxxxxxxxx
REPLY
Mark Jacobs
August 23, 2011 at 10:28 am
@Ricky
There should be no problem. The website administrator cant find out who
you are. Even if they could get a hold of your IP address, theres not much
they could find out about you.
http://ask-leo.com/what_can_people_tell_from_my_ip_address.html
REPLY
James
September 19, 2011 at 7:27 am
I gave up trying to copy protect my material a loooong time ago.

Too many people today are tech. savvy.
REPLY
Jon
March 8, 2012 at 5:22 am
Im trying to do this right now so that I can copy the text of a user licence
agreement for some software that Im downloading. I want to be able to refer
to the text afterwards, without having to refer to the website. So this has
legitimate uses too!
Page 16 of 21
REPLY
Africancop
June 1, 2012 at 12:09 am
right click on the web page.use view source.the new tab contains the html
link.copy what you need.remove the tag parts.
REPLY
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User888
5
January 5, 2013 at 4:06 am
Another way to get around is to Save the Webpage in text format, open the
saved file using Notepad and copy the information.
REPLY
Anurag Sharma
February 9, 2013 at 8:10 pm
Thank you. JavaScript trick worked for me.

REPLY
Roland
August 26, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Java trick worked here too

Fantastic solution
I just wanted to copy a receipt for cooking
No idea why they protected it
Hardly can bring my computer to the kitchen
Roland
REPLY
Biscuit
March 13, 2013 at 6:15 pm
I try to block the javascript of the website I want to copy but no success.
I have learned here that website also uses CSS to prevent
copying/highlighting of text.
So I use Pendule an extension for chrome that can view or disable css of the
Page 17 of 21
websites.
Finally, I succeed in highlighting the text. Now I can copy it
REPLY
Daniel Wilianto
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April 2, 2013 at 6:14 pm
Oh yeah, I cant fathom why are some web programmers so dumb so that they
think that they can prevent people from copying the contents of their
websites. Even now as I speak, many websites do it. So dumb. As if it can

achieve anything. As you said, as long as its shown to people, it can be
stolen. Even when I was just a computer newbie, I can already steal the
pictures using the Print Screen button on the keyboard. I think I was still
using Win 9x during that time.
REPLY
Simon Ezeh
August 29, 2014 at 8:32 am
Hi. Does it mean you cant crack ASPS i.e ArtistScope Site Protection System?
Someone said any site protected with it is beyond copying, printing, saving,
downloading, etc. Is it true?
REPLY
Leo
August 29, 2014 at 12:45 pm
If it can be seen it can be copied in one form or another. Worst case you
can take a photograph of the screen, but generally there are techniques
that give better results as well. Im not at all familiar with ASPS.
REPLY
SKSONKER
September 29, 2014 at 10:52 pm
VERY HELPFULL
EASIEST METHODS
U ROCKX SIR !
THANK YOU !
Page 18 of 21
REPLY
Adrienne
October 8, 2014 at 12:45 am
My methods very slow, but good for copying paragraphs of text, or if you
dont want to download any extensions- right click the text, select Inspect
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element, then find the text inside the body of the code, which will be inside
codes. Double click them and the text will show (I have only tried this in
chrome so it may differ in other browsers). Or you could possibly delete the
codes used to make it unable to be copied?? I havent figured this out yet
though.
REPLY
Abc
October 29, 2014 at 4:07 am
thanksit helped me a lot!

REPLY
Animej
December 4, 2014 at 5:42 pm
haha! microsoft one note just worked right now for scribd uncopyable
content. thank you for the one who suggested. ive been looking for hours
and finally! off to do some pirating =)
REPLY
Pierre
March 4, 2015 at 8:32 am
Hi, Another way under chrome is to use Save text to google drive extension.
Best regards from Paris.
REPLY
Slimhun
March 23, 2015 at 12:40 pm
Using no style on firefox method worked great for me, thanks a lot
REPLY

Jon Alex
Page 19 of 21
July 16, 2015 at 6:01 pm
THU-16-JUL
Hello,
ref: XPath Query ?
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I am seeking a tool that shall allow the search for meta title element/tag
ABOUT or CONTACT page URL.
Know where I could find this?

Please recommend.
Jon Alex
REPLY
Michael Albert
August 19, 2015 at 11:46 am
Thank you so much for the help, your work is very appreciated, God bless
you !
REPLY
Mansi
September 5, 2015 at 6:10 am
Actually i had a question that i am working online but i am not getting the
copy paste option so can you please revert me as how can i do my copy paste
work so that i can get completed my work as soon as possible.Anybody if can
be helpful to solve my query.
REPLY
Leave a reply:
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Page 20 of 21
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How Do I Copy Ahow Do I Copy A Copy Protected Web Page Copy Protected Web Page

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How Do I Copy Ahow Do I Copy A Copy Protected Web Page Copy Protected Web Page

Transféré par

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How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

Making Technology Work For Everyone

How do I copy a copy protected

How do I copy/paste from sites that dont permit it?

computer but has a machine that onlysends/receives plain

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

As you might expect, the website in question is trying to protect

evenwhat you have in mind while morally acceptable in my opinion

Copy protection on websites be it just for pictures or for entire pages

Above Board Techniques

if it can be seen, it can be

print that page to

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

fidelity in thatitll include all the formatting and images as the

Another approach is to use the File -> Save As option in the

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

Disable or circumvent CSS. CSS, for Cascading Style Sheets, is

Thepage will be re-rendered without CSS and the result, which

Off The Wall Techniques

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

If It Can Be Seen, It Can Be Copied.

My intent here is really to point out the futility of copy protection

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

How do I reinstall Internet

July 5, 2010 at 5:43 am

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

July 5, 2010 at 11:03 am

This usually works

July 5, 2010 at 5:08 pm

I like that idea, it turned http://askleo.com into a pdf file.

July 6, 2010 at 8:39 am

July 6, 2010 at 9:00 am

July 6, 2010 at 9:43 am

Got http://www.imtoolpack.com and download it.

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

July 6, 2010 at 9:45 am

learn how to remove the code for copyright protection. I am surprised

July 6, 2010 at 10:13 am

July 6, 2010 at 11:54 am

July 6, 2010 at 1:08 pm

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

July 6, 2010 at 1:18 pm

July 6, 2010 at 2:34 pm

July 6, 2010 at 3:21 pm

July 7, 2010 at 3:07 am

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

July 7, 2010 at 5:24 am

July 7, 2010 at 7:39 am

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

December 1, 2014 at 6:44 am

IF its txt the questioner need :

is, you got it captured!!

July 8, 2010 at 1:11 pm

This method can also be tried

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

July 9, 2010 at 6:22 am

July 11, 2010 at 1:05 am

an advance thank if i may require it anytime(but without ill intention)

Steve From Montreal

July 12, 2010 at 5:11 pm

How do I copy a copy protected web page? - Ask Leo!

(shameless plug, hope its OK: {URL removed}

June 2, 2015 at 6:20 pm