Hot take: "Copy and paste" is the most influential interaction technique for an Internet of freely-flowing code, text, and images. The "share" function preferred by the walled gardens of mobile devices has bent the arc of how information spreads more than any other technology.
Of course, now that every website is a Single Page App, we've brought this curse back to the Web at-large.
You see an image? You may no longer Right Click and Save As. It is guarded by powerful magics - you may only Share the link so that the ad impressions are fed.
You see an image? You may no longer Right Click and Save As. It is guarded by powerful magics - you may only Share the link so that the ad impressions are fed.
Even if you speak the language of the Web, you can no longer negotiate passage through the land of Divs and grab the URL to the resource. This looks like a video source, but if you try and access it, you will only grasp empty air. 
Note that none of these strategies have actually prevented theft/unauthorized use of content. All you have to do is say "I'd buy that on a T-shirt" and bots will come to scrape every image from that thread and stick it onto an on-demand print store.
Remember back in the early 00s when a certain Eric Bauman was pilloried for running a website where he displayed others' work without permission?
Today, this is the business model for hundreds of "content aggregator" sites. We didn't protect the artists, we subjugated the users.
Today, this is the business model for hundreds of "content aggregator" sites. We didn't protect the artists, we subjugated the users.
