Shortly after I started my hosting company in 2001 the design were ripped by another person/company. I would like to avoid it this time if possible. Some web sites are offering to scramble the html code but they don't seem to be able to do it with the script or css part of the pages. At least it doesn't work after having scrambled it.

Does anybody here know of an effective way to protect the code?

Thanks
John

HTML is one of the hardest things to protect because when a user visits a site, the HTML is sent directly to the visitor.

Also scrambling is not good for SEO I heard because it makes it harder for search engines to crawl the page.

Your best way to protect the design is to copyright it and file DMCA complaints against anyone who rips it.

only code that can be encrypted securly is php / non html stuff. even thats not 100% non hackable.

php is possible to encrypt but everything has an html output. You should pay a visit to the ioncube website, they have made a free html encrypter.

theres nothing that can really be done... copyright it and then sue like jay mentioned...

The ioncube html encryptor is very good for 99% of what is needed. Too bad we couldn't code in a "key" that would be on another server that is necessary to access in order to display the page. If the "key" is unavailable on server B, then the site on server A would automatically be unavailable.

Opens all kinds of opportunities!

accept that in order to render a page html has to be decrypted and displayed at some point. And after that happens its pretty easy to grab it.

There is 0% possibility of protecting page design in the code or hosting itself. Let's be real here, the page is rendered in a browser, and as such the code for the site is transmitted to whoever goes to it. "View source", etc. DMCA is the only method to protect your intellectual property online, unless you can settle such issues with the perpetrators outside the legal system with a warning to them.

There is no way to protect your code. There is and always will be ways to get around it. Your best bet is to copyright it and then if it happens take legal action. Or when it does happen send a cease and desist email to them stating that they ripped you off and to remove there website to avoid any legal action taken. you would be surprised how many people remove the stolen work straight away.

Happened to my website design content last week and the following steps corrected it quickly...

If you discover someone has stolen your content, you should act quickly to have it removed. Since copyright laws vary from place to place, it is always best to seek professional legal advice from a qualified lawyer before proceeding. Here are some steps to consider:

Look for contact details on the offending site and send a polite message asking for the material to be removed. If there are no contact details available, try emailing webmaster@ the domain.

Use a Whois service to find out the website owner's name and telephone number and contact them directly. Enter the domain name in the search box and the contact information should appear towards the bottom of the page.

Contact the web hosting company used by the site and inform them of their customer's abuse. This information is also available through a Whois search.

Send a formal 'Cease and Desist' letter notifying the offending party that they must remove the stolen content from their site. Some sample letters are available on the web.

File a notice of Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with search engines such as Google and others to have the offending site removed from their search results.

If you need proof of infringement, you can use the Internet Archive to show that the content appeared on your site at an earlier date than it appeared on the offending site.

Protecting images nowadays is really hard, so for my blog, I try to put watermarks in some of the pictures that I don't want to be stolen. I've also enabled a right-click protection but I guess there are still other ways to get pictures without permission.

Try enconding into base64?

You can get javascript which prevents right click to view source. This might be a basic detterrent for you. Then put the css files and script files in places other than standard dirs like /css/ and /js/. Then finally you might want to put blank index files in all subdirectories so they can't see the listings of the files.

Protecting it is very very hard, if not impossible. Even if you can have your code protected by javascripts, there is always a way to view it in a different way. And if not, they will just screenshot your website and creating the code themselves.
You can go to court but that's not the road you want to go unless you have a lot of money.
Accept it, and change your design so now and then to stay unique.

Apart from maybe disabling right clicking (which in turn may annoy some users), it's not worth the time and hassle.

Perhaps the best thing is to put a short comment near the top saying it's copyrighted and you will follow up on any copyright violations - and then follow websitedesign's advice above if someone does rip it off...

XHTML / CSS or just HTML in general is hard to protect. You can use HTML Encrypter's (http://www.iwebtool.com/html_encrypter) but this is not something I would suggest. For the simple fact if your running JS (JavaScripts) or other scripts such as server uptime, live chat sense it is a hosting company this can cause errors on your website.

Unfortunately, there is no way I'm aware of to protect the HTML that is 'yours'. Just hang in there and keep developing unique designs and coding. People do notice the copiers from the rippers.

I've had people 'steal / take' my designs and I contacted the Datacenter right away and they handled the issue and gave the client 24 to 48 hours to remove the contact (granted I had to provide valid proof these where my designs). If it was not removed in the time frame the Datacenter gave them, they would go in and delete it. I'm not sure about coding, I think that would be much harder to tell who 'owns' that. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Best of luck!

The best option for you is to have proof of it being your creation so basically work in progresses, take screenshots of it being made or even being coded. That's what i'd do, or get a witness.

I would rely on anything code wise, too unreliable and plus theres always people who will get past it.

there are lot of website owners who had experienced this.. most especially if the website is cool.. that's why the other website owners try to rip those sites..

protecting it i think is hard to do..