Text copying disabled
April 18, 2008 | 8:49 amI was writing an email to a friend, and tried to copy and paste a URL, but all that get pasted was “Text copying disabled”.
I thought maybe the site was preventing copying, so I disabled Javascript and tried again. Same problem. I tried copying some text within a text editor. Same problem.
Eventually I realised is was a survey I was completing in another tab (I like to multi-task). I looked at the source, and saw no JS. All there was was a piece of flash embedded.
Once I closed the survey everything worked, but it’s a bit worrying that flash can take over your computer to such an extent!
Does anyone know of any security settings that could stop this? Is there anything else Flash can do to take over a computer?
Update 2008-05-20:
I’ve had a lot of people coming to this blog looking for how to fix this. If I’m right, the easiest way to fix this will be to close all web browsers.
If this doesn’t work please let me know and I’ll look in to it. If it does work, feel free to comment too – I’d be interested to know how widespread the problem is.
This totally worked. I couldn't figure out why this was
Angela | May 22, 2008 | 6:23 pmThis totally worked. I couldn’t figure out why this was happening to me but I realized I had a tab that was open to a site that had a flash banner. So this worked, thanks!
Yup, same problem. All the time!
Jonathan Kubiak | June 29, 2008 | 10:42 amYup, same problem. All the time!
I had the same issue. I was working on
Jay Langdon | July 9, 2008 | 12:33 amI had the same issue. I was working on a survey in a browser and got the “text copying disabled” error in Excel. When I finished the survey I was fine in excel.
works very fine :-)))
corifee | July 10, 2008 | 11:00 amworks very fine
))
well... I updated java Runtime Environment and all was
Elixyr | August 27, 2008 | 5:44 amwell… I updated java Runtime Environment and all was fixed
Same issue here. As sson as I closed the survey,
halfdozmom | September 27, 2008 | 1:51 pmSame issue here. As sson as I closed the survey, it worked again!!!
It’s not hacking or taking over your system. In fact,
Alec Soroudi | November 5, 2008 | 10:10 pmIt’s not hacking or taking over your system. In fact, it’s not actually /disabling/ copying at all. What it is doing is to rapidly copy that text into the clipboard in an infinite loop. It’s abusing a legitimate browser mechanism. This has the effect that not only can you not copy and paste text, but you cannot copy and paste files either (or anything else that uses the clipboard). (Technically you can still copy stuff, but you must paste it very, very quickly, before it gets wiped out of the clipboard.)
Apparently these /geniuses/ think that their survey is so bloody interesting that everyone would just drop everything else to fill it out.
If your’re using Google Chrome, you can use its Task Manager to kill the Flash plug-in to stop it (of course it will reload on the next page of the survey, so you’ll have to do it again). You could also try disabling the Flash plug-in altogether while doing the survey.
What’s interesting is to realize just how much we take copying/cutting for granted when we can’t use it.
HTH
@Alec, thanks for the further information - obvious really. Hopefully further
Rob | November 6, 2008 | 8:46 am@Alec, thanks for the further information – obvious really.
Hopefully further versions of Flash will have security settings that will remove the ability of movies to use the clipboard (without user say-so).
Oh, and if we’re getting into semantics, it could be classed as a ‘Hack‘ – from Wikipedia:
“[The term Hack] may refer to a clever or quick fix to a computer program problem, or to a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem.”.
Yes, technically it is. I meant that it is not
Alec Soroudi | November 9, 2008 | 1:56 amYes, technically it is. I meant that it is not doing what the term hacking has come to be known (the unethical kind), although abuse of a mechanism is unethical.
What’s interesting is that the SWF file that the survey I was doing is only 128 bytes. It never ceases to amaze how small malware can be.
It really works... I was open a survey tab in
Wing | December 24, 2008 | 3:38 amIt really works… I was open a survey tab in browser, then “Text Copying Disabled” appear when I pressed “Ctrl + V”, didn’t notice it’s the main reason that make my “Ctrl + V” disabling before found the solutions from this forum, as some website said cuz of settings problem…
Really Thanks a lot…
The main reason is a “Global Test Market” Survey tab is open in my browser, when I close the browser, all the problems solved… Never think that a webpage will takeover some Windows function.
god, it happened all week.. I've solved it by now
Dave R | August 4, 2010 | 12:16 amgod, it happened all week.. I’ve solved it by now but wanted to see if there are any other solutions laying around
Good on ya