# Something new I'm seeing (pasting text from website into a forum post) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614 "2012-02-03T02:38:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/1 "2012-02-03T02:38:11Z")
In the last couple of days a few times I’ve wanted to copy-and-paste text from websites (the source of which I intend to manually cite) into forum posts like this one - so, I highlight and copy, say, this text: Pentax has unveiled a surprising design for its first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, which features Pentax’s K-mount and a 16-megapixel APS-C sized sensor. from [this](http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2143551/pentax-unveils-compact-01-mirrorless-camera#ixzz1lHYUSmDB) site… and when I paste I get this: Pentax has unveiled a surprising design for its first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, which features Pentax’s K-mount and a 16-megapixel APS-C sized sensor. Read more: [http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2143551/pentax-unveils-compact-01-mirrorless-camera#ixzz1lHYUSmDB](http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2143551/pentax-unveils-compact-01-mirrorless-camera#ixzz1lHYUSmDB) Subscribe to BJP and save money. Click here to save 29% today. with the “Read more:” link and “Subscribe to BJP and save money. Click here to save 29% today.” somehow automatically added to the text I’ve copied. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before when simply trying to cut and paste text - how is it happening? Is it something new? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/2 "2012-02-03T03:09:28Z")
Started happening to me a few months ago. Not sure if it’s because I recently switched from a Windows machine to a Mac. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/3 "2012-02-03T03:09:29Z")
Doesn’t happen to me. What browser are you using? I’ve got Firefox 10. On a Win7 machine. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/4 "2012-02-03T03:11:33Z")
It’s a new ‘feature’ web sites are adding into text you are likely to cut’n’paste, [my newspaper’s home page](http://www.smh.com.au/) does it too. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > Started happening to me a few months ago. Not sure if it’s because I recently switched from a Windows machine to a Mac. Nothing to do with that, see above. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/5 "2012-02-03T03:15:03Z")
FWIW I am using Safari 5.1.2 on a Mac running OS 10.6.8. Any way to disable the “feature”? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/6 "2012-02-03T03:26:49Z")
Looks like they are using a remotely-hosted Javascript to get your browser to do that. The script is: [http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js](http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js) (don’t worry it’s not malicious) If you use any ad blocking software or Javascript blocking software, you can add that to your blacklist. You could also edit your hosts file ([This article](http://decoding.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-in-mac-os-x-leopard/) is for Leopard - not sure if that’s what you have?) and add both [http://tcr.tynt.com](http://tcr.tynt.com) and [http://asd.tynt.com](http://asd.tynt.com) to it, mapping them to 127.0.0.1 and the Javascript will stop working. You’d get a Javascript error when visiting that page but I’m not sure how intrusive they are in Safari (they have always been shitty in IE but non-intrusive in Firefox). ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/7 "2012-02-03T13:40:06Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > It’s a new ‘feature’ web sites are adding into text you are likely to cut’n’paste… If it’s embedded in the website, why doesn’t it happen to me? (The Sydney Morning Herald site you linked doesn’t do it, either.) Or does AdBlocker, Ghostery, or some other thing prevent it on my end without my realizing it? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/8 "2012-02-03T13:52:14Z")
It’s a variation on the technique I’ve seen for a decade, where you right-click, say on a picture, and it says something like “please don’t steal my content!” instead of the standard menu. Someone’s created a little java applet with the “On right-click” event or something like that. As mentioned above, disable Javascript, or customize the browser to ignore it… The lazier ones only work with IE, some have been scripted to work with all versions of the most popular browsers. ---
**Author:** ![IntelliQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@IntelliQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IntelliQ)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/9 "2012-02-03T14:19:32Z")
Expanding on the info already given upthread, check the piece at[lifehacker](http://lifehacker.com/5553814/stop-sites-from-adding-citations-to-copy-and-paste-blocks). I’ve only just noticed this happening a few weeks ago, and it only happened a couple of time. Very irritating. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/10 "2012-02-03T18:38:46Z")
I vaguely remember something like that in the past. I may have pasted it into NS Messenger and then recopied what I wanted. Note, I never have used windows much, mostly Mac or Linux. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/11 "2012-02-03T23:46:20Z")
I’ve seen it occasionally, but only on less reputable sites. I’d be concerned the site is losing a ton of money if they think hijacking people’s computers and turning them into spammers is an acceptable method of advertising. I also expect that Firefox will have a way to disable javascript’s ability to hijack your clipboard quite soon. This is stuff that people who even have adblock will object to, I believe. Spammers are considered the lowest of the low. No one wants to be one unless they are being paid for it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/12 "2012-02-03T23:54:55Z")
\*who don’t even have adblock ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/13 "2012-02-04T04:22:38Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > \ > > You could also edit your hosts file ([This article](http://decoding.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-in-mac-os-x-leopard/) is for Leopard - not sure if that’s what you have?) and add both [http://tcr.tynt.com](http://tcr.tynt.com) and [http://asd.tynt.com](http://asd.tynt.com) to it, mapping them to 127.0.0.1 and the Javascript will stop working. > > You’d get a Javascript error when visiting that page but I’m not sure how intrusive they are in Safari (they have always been shitty in IE but non-intrusive in Firefox). Or how about: If you happen to run a web server on your own machine (or one somewhere that you control), you could put your own {htdocs or wherever}/javascripts/Tracer.js there, that essentially does nothing – but then you wouldn’t get any file-not-found errors. As I’ve mentioned in many threads before, I simply run my browser with JavaScript disabled at all times except when I specifically know I’ll need it (like most or all on-line bill-paying sites), and I never miss it. A whole lot of stuff disappears or doesn’t work, and it’s almost entirely crap that I’m _glad_ disappears or doesn’t work. Question: That Daring Fireball article says that this code not only inserts that link into your cutting, but also phones home to tattle on you. Exactly _when_ does this happen? When you cut the text to your clipboard? When you paste it? When somebody else opens or views the page containing your pasting? Or only when that somebody else actually _clicks on_ that tracer link? As noted, it’s probably a good bet that _most_ of these added links quickly get deleted as fast as the pasting person sees them. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/14 "2012-02-04T05:09:19Z")
Cracked articles do that same thing. I’ve always found it quite annoying when i’m trying to paste a snippet into a chatroom with a character limit per line. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-new-im-seeing-pasting-text-from-website-into-a-forum-post/611614/15 "2012-02-05T22:43:29Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > It’s a variation on the technique I’ve seen for a decade, where you right-click, say on a picture, and it says something like “please don’t steal my content!” instead of the standard menu. Someone’s created a little java applet with the “On right-click” event or something like that. As mentioned above, disable Javascript, or customize the browser to ignore it… The lazier ones only work with IE, some have been scripted to work with all versions of the most popular browsers. This kind of thing is caused by a piece of Javascript code, not a Java applet, right?