RE: [PHP] How to prevent people from downloading images

there are two answers to this: 1) it cannot be done. as long as that image is on the person's computer screen, it is physically impossible to prevent that person from saving the image and using it. (a simple tap of the "print screen" will take a screenshot on windows machines, as someone else mentioned) 2) if you used java or some form of server-side script to pass the binary data directly to the browser, it would make it much harder for the "average" websurfur to "steal" the image, since he/she wouldnt be able to just right-click on it and select save as... (as someone also mentioned, he bought a java class that did this) but like i said before, if that image is viewable on the computer monitor, it's impossible to protect it if someone wants to steal it bad enough.