Copy to Clipboard - ambush and abuse by javascript

• From: Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org>
• Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 11:14:36 -0400
• To: TAG List <www-tag@w3.org>
• Message-Id: <AFFAB130-B693-4AC9-91E6-B6834E57B3F5@w3.org>

Example on MSNBC:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29875493/ns/today-green/
Very frustrating -- but a violation of the user interface.

It is discussed by John Gruber on:

http://daringfireball.net/2010/05/tynt_copy_paste_jerks

"the site uses JavaScript to report what you’ve copied to an analytics server" when you perform a copy.
This I think seriously violates the function of Copy, and the user's rights.

Should browsers ensure that Copy is always a read-only operation, unless they have INSTALLED code to do something different?

Tim

Received on Wednesday, 2 June 2010 15:14:39 UTC