leaving an invisible note in html

[masx]

Hopefully this is the place for this kind of question.

This is what I want to do:
I want to add a note into a blog post, within the html that would not be visible to readers, but would reveal itself to anyone using html to read the article.
The note would be a warning that the article is copyright and unauthorized use is forbidden.

I was also considering adding into the note, a unique codeword so a search might find it if someone decided to cut and paste and claim it as their own.

Thanks if you can help with this.

masx

[LD]

You can easily add a comment in the HTML code:

<!-- Put your unique/special copyright text inside the body of the article like this -->

For you code word - you will have to think about it and associate it with a phrase or passage in the article. Also - keep a copy for safe keeping where there is a date/time stamp. It's clearly not fool-proof, but every little bit helps.

Having said that - something visible on the site near our around where the articles are or even in the footer of the pages might also be prudent.

[weegillis]

What you could do is include an anagram of your name in the body text, then use another innocuous, but in the open phrase or number that points to the anagram. Only you could verify and authenticate this, so it would be proof of original if the question ever came up in proceedings. Otherwise, no.

HTML is a client browser language that affords no way to hide anything from a curious user. If you don't want people stealing your writing, don't publish it on the web until AFTER you publish it in circulating print under your own byline. Anybody dumb enough to steal it then would deserve to get sued. Either that, or don't publish on the web at all. Once there, you can no longer control where it circulates.

[masx]

Thanks for both your input, LD and weegillis, every little bit helps.
And I did find that <!-- method of adding something.
masx

[williamc]

a lot of scrapers will strip out html comments. I would suggest just a bit of css trickery to accomplish your goal like:

<div class="hideText">This is my copyright info, dont steal it you bastards.</div>

and obviously add a css class for hideText to make the text display: none;