Protecting your intellectual property is an important concern for creators. While there are best practices for safeguarding your work, it’s also important to understand the technical realities of how online content functions.
Once someone can view digital content, there is no platform that can fully prevent copying. However, there are effective steps you can take to discourage misuse, monitor engagement, and protect your content legally.
What Isn’t Technically Possible
There is currently no reliable way to completely prevent someone from copying content they can access online. Even if copy/paste or text highlighting is disabled, users can still:
Take screenshots or screen recordings
Manually retype content
Use external tools to extract visible information
Additionally, disabling text selection creates accessibility barriers. Screen readers used by visually impaired users rely on selectable text, so blocking this can make your content inaccessible and non-compliant with accessibility standards.
What Does Help Protect Your Content
Instead of technical restrictions that can be bypassed, we recommend focusing on legal, platform-level, and monitoring safeguards, including:
Clear Terms of Use
Require members to agree to acceptable use terms before accessing your products. These terms should explicitly outline how your content may and may not be used. (In MemberVault all members must agree to your terms for they access your products -- if someone does not check the terms box, we do not allow them to continue with their purchase/sign up until they have done so).Copyright Protection & Legal Recourse
Copyright your materials so you can issue takedown requests (such as DMCA notices) if your content is copied or redistributed elsewhere.Member Activity Tracking
MemberVault provides a Member Activity Log that allows you to see how users are interacting with your content. This can help identify suspicious spikes in activity or potential misuse.Secure Content Hosting
Use secure video hosting platforms that restrict downloading.Platform Security
MemberVault adheres to industry security standards and undergoes regular security audits to help protect your platform and member data.
If you need assistance with setting up your copyright materials, we highly recommend our own legal team, AWB firm! http://membervault.co/legal (#Affiliate Link)
Important to Know
No online platform can fully prevent content copying once access is granted. The most effective protection combines:
Clear legal terms
Copyright ownership
Engagement monitoring
Secure hosting practices
This layered approach provides meaningful protection while maintaining accessibility and usability for legitimate members.
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Questions? Reach out to us at hello@membervault.co, within our Facebook group, The MV Collaborative, or via chat support within your admin account (not sure how to log in? look up your account here).