What is Safe Blogging ?

Safe Blogging is the process of publishing a Blog in such a manner to as to disallow others from being able to lift content for use in another Blog or other publication through electronic means.

The problem with traditional Blogging is that there are no protections through which anyone may secure how and when their content may be used.  RSS Feeds are traditionally left open for anyone to use however they see fit.  Traditional Blogware such as WordPress and others have no methods by which those who cannot write software may use to secure their content from being abused by others.

Safe Blogging can be achieved by working to ensure only a human being who has entered through the front-door of the Blog in a legitimate manner is able to read the contents being published.

One can simply make their Blog content read-only by placing a piece of glass over the top of it as if it were sitting on display as though it were valuable like the U.S Constitution that when on display sits behind a rather thick glass cover where nobody can touch the paper because it is valuable.

How can you place a piece of glass over the top of your content ?

One technique is to inhibit the right click menu by using some JavaScript.  Once the right-click menu has been inhibited those who view the content may view it and read it when they visit the Blog but they may not copy and paste it away from the Blog.

Another technique is to use Flash to render the content with the right-click menu also disabled.  Make sure a transparent watermark is being used to identify the original author of the materials being viewed.  The Flash content renderer can be made to function only when it is being used from the domain from which it was designed to gather content and none other.  Also place a suitable copyright message in a prominent place for all to see albeit in small print.

How can bloggers ensure their content is being viewed by human beings rather than auto-bots that seek to screen-scrape the content away ?

Again, use JavaScript and AJAX to ensure either a human being has clicked a button or link to see the content that is rendered using Flash with no means of performing a copy and paste operation.  Most auto-bots that seeks to scrape content are not able to handle the JavaScript although the technology exists in the form of WebKit which means your typical unethical blogger who wants to carry your content away would have to invest more time and effort to construct a method of grabbing the content anyway but this does tend to raise the bar a bit higher than where that bar was set before.

Another technique that does not involve Flash would involve AJAX to populate blocks of content into DIV tags after the page has been rendered by the browser.  Those who seek to scrape the content would have to use software capable of dealing with the AJAX and this too works to raise the bar.

Yet another technique would be to use PDF as a way to secure the content as a read-only document that does not allow printing or copy and paste operations.

Nothing will stop people from being able to scrape the content in the form of an image as they view that content using their browser or otherwise enhanced screen-scrape auto-bots but whatever images they scrape will have your watermark and copyright for all to see.  The watermark is of particular interest because it really makes it difficult for people to lift your content as translucent watermarks are not all that easy to filter-out.

There is one Content Management System poised to use all these techniques or the ones that make the most sense for those who prefer not to learn how to write their own software.  This CMS goes by the name Vyper-CMS™ and it can be viewed at www.VyperLogix.Com where you can Register for your own FREE WebSite.  If enough people get registered Vyper Logix Corp could be persuaded to implement Safe Blogging for all to use at no cost.  If Safe Blogging interests you then get registered and begin supporting those who wish to make your dreams of Safe Blogging work for you.