Newbie - 1st Post

[PaulDF]

Hi All,
I'm not a professional and have no interest in selling anything.  I do have lots of photos I would like to share with family and friends.  I am a conservative type when it comes to privacy etc. and harbor (what I think is) a healthy suspiciousness about the internet and keeping my info/data/family safe.

With that introduction in mind I would like to ask your opinions of the safest ways to share my photos with my friends and family.

So far I have signed up on and started using a couple of  photo sharing websites ie: Picassa Web Albums, Photobucket, and Photoshop.com - each seem to have their merits and drawbacks as you would expect.  I have not drilled down enough in each except Picassa to figure out all the details of how they each allow you to set permissions/access.  Picassa for example only has three viewing options for albums - Public/Unlisted/Sign-in Required (this sign in is just to make it available to anyone with a Gmail account - not a password you set yourself).  They also only have what I would call a 'Universal' setting to deny visitors the ability to download your albums - you cannot set or unset this on an album by album basis.

What I would ideally like to be able to do is to say, let Bob, Mike and Bill view the pics from our fishing trip in an album titled 'SpringFishingTrip09', but not neccessarily copy or download those pics - and to do so by telling/sending them a link and a password specifically for only that album.  In addition I'd like Mom and other family to be able to do the same with an album titled 'FamilyReunion08" and so on and so on.  If someone wanted to download/copy I could set their rights to do so - just like I can do in Windows with shared files as an Administrator by setting individuals rights to files to 'Read Only', 'Read/Write' etc..

This sort of flexiblity doesn't seem to be available in at least the free versions of these sharing sites I've visited so far, and or others, but I may be wrong - that's why I'm asking you.

It seems that in order to really have this kind of control, I need to create/host my own website with pages maybe devoted to individual albums.  These pages can easily be password protected (it seems) with a username/password Java script combo I can set for all my contacts.  There even is a Java script that can be used to deny visitors the ability to do the usual 'Right Click and Copy/Save etc.' tactic on individual photos once in the album.  I don't think there is anyway to stop people from taking 'ScreenShots' with programs like Apples' Grab, but maybe in the future?

So I ask you all - the Cogniscenti - to weigh in and let me know if there are sites I can join to get this kind of protection, and if so what are they and which ones do you prefer and why, - or do I build my own Pyramid???

[peteh]

Maybe try this.It's free up to so many pics.... then you buy more storage.Worth a try
http://www.memeo.com/memeoshare.php

[PaulDF]

Thanks peteh!

I looked it over and have sent them an email for clarification, but it appears that they actually send those people in your 'Sharing Circle' an actual hi-res image file of each photo - now that person can do whatever they want to with that photo - copy, print, photoshop and upload to 'NastyBoys.com' or whatever - definately NOT what I'm hoping to achieve!  Other than that it seems like a very nice software/service.

[Josh-H]

Paul,

You might like to consider a .mac account or a mobile me account (the same thing). Its basically cloud storage that apple provides - it integrates very well with iphoto and you can publish private galleries and password them very easily. You can choose who you share them with, when they expire etc. It can send links to family and friends with passwords.

Its actually a very elegant solution to accomplish the sort of things you want to do - and its relatively cheap to boot. As an added bonus you get the extra benefits of a mobile me/.mac account if those appeal to you.

I have a mobile me account - but dont use this feature set - primarily because I use Lightroom and Live-books for my business - but if I wanted to share family photos across the web and password protect them it would probably be my tool of choice.

Edit - in relation to this point

What I would ideally like to be able to do is to say, let Bob, Mike and Bill view the pics from our fishing trip in an album titled 'SpringFishingTrip09', but not neccessarily copy or download those pic

You really cant stop anyone downloading pics from the web once they are posted - regardless of what security you attempt to implement. You can make it more difficult by using flash or preventing right click save as - but anyone with more than beginners knowledge will still be able to download them. Once its on the net.. its pretty much impossible to stop someone copying the image. Of course, if you are sharing a password protected gallery with only your freinds or family - its less of an issue since politely asking them not to copy it is probably all that is required.

[PaulDF]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the repy.  Funny you should mention it, but I just got off a 'Live Chat' session with a Moble Me Rep - after my Mac using buddy suggested I check it out.  I agree it seems like a very nice service also.  I understand that you can password protect albums and send them only to the individuals you wish to, but the rep said there is no provision to set individual read or read/write type rights to individual recipients at this time at least.  Not a deal killer by any means, but am still looking to see if something else does/can!!

As to this whole thing about who can get what on the web - I agree for the most part that once it's out there it's pretty much lost (control-wise) - which is exactly why I wanted to start this topic here in the Coffee Corner with perhaps may I dare say it  - a slightly more sophisticated/knowledgable group than might be found elsewhere!  I understand you're correct in your evaluation of the situation that the most you can do is make it really hard for unsophisticated users, and maybe kinda hard for more knowledgable ones - but is that the end of it?  Is anyone trying to find a way to encrypt a tag so that even a screenprint comes out fuzzy or something?  Is my idea about creating my own website the absolute best way to gain the most control - or will any of these other softwares/sites/services offer the kind of detailed user by user control I'd like to implement?

What say the collective??