Preventing copy and laste

Technical Q&A
1

What are ways I can prevent copying from my site

2

Hi @Ayinon . Welcome to the Shopify Community!

Technically, you can add a JS snippet that would prevent right mouse clicks and Ctrl+C shortcut. However, this is considered a very bad user experience. Additionally, anyone who knows what he’s doing would easily overcome that.

At the end, there’s no acceptable way from stopping someone from copying.

3

Thanks. What are examples of the bad user experiences. Thanks

4

Blocking the right-click menu is bad because users might need those for other actions. Same goes for Ctrl+C. I just mentioned the option, but I don’t suggest it still.

5

Hello @Ayinon

1. Disable Right-Click + Text Selection

This is the most common method to stop casual users from copying text or saving images.

OR

  • Add custom code to your theme’s theme.liquid before the tag:

This won’t stop tech-savvy users, but it deters the average person.

6

Nice, Thanks

7

To build on what’s been said - the core issue is that anything a browser can render, a user can technically copy in some way. Disabling right-click or keyboard shortcuts only stops casual visitors. Someone with basic technical knowledge can open DevTools, view the page source, or just take a screenshot, so those measures have a pretty low ceiling.

If protecting images is your main concern, watermarking them before uploading is probably the most durable option. Even if someone saves or screenshots the image, your branding is already baked in. For written content, the realistic long-term protection is legal rather than technical - a clear copyright notice in your footer, and if you ever catch someone actually using your content, a DMCA takedown to their hosting provider is usually effective.

One thing worth clarifying: are you worried about individual visitors manually copying things, or about bots and scrapers pulling your content systematically? Those are different problems. For the latter, the solution sits more at the traffic or access level than the UI level, and there are tools that operate there.

If it’s just casual copying you want to discourage, the right-click disable approach is harmless enough to try - just don’t expect it to hold up against anyone who’s actually motivated.