I was driving and looked to my right to see a black-gloved hand was dangling a cigarette out the window of a what appeared to be a wind-scrubbed ’94 Tahoe. The woman with no chin and wearing the glove brought the lit cigarette to her lips, took a drag, looked at me and exhaled in a cloud of grays and blues before turning back to texting with her other hand. The light turned green and her car chugged and rattled in an even larger, even more depressing swirl of exhaust fumes. As I accelerated through the intersection, it dawned on me she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt either.

The woman would either die of lung cancer, asphyxiation or a car accident but dammit her hand wasn’t going to get a nicotine stain on it. People are weird.

I added this little anecdote to my blog because I think it defines something about people’s misconception when “protecting” their content online. Nothing short of a watermark directly on your image is going to keep it out of the hands of those who really want it, and even that isn’t going to stop someone with photoshop skills necessarily. The same goes for what you write or what you film. If someone really wanted to steal your content, they are going to get it and “disabling” your right-button mouse option is not going to save you. It’s like the woman’s black, rhinestone-encrusted glove in the long run.