General Question

[Methuselah]

I was reading on a list returned from a search and it had a link to here:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/weihrauchowners/hw45-strip-down-with-pics-t7401.html

There's pics (very rare), but they're all "ruined" by overlays making them impossible to use. I know years ago the overlays were not there, and I presume they are there now because whoever originally hosted them (photobucket?) is, or if they no longer exist, were, holding them for ransome?

Are they "lost" forever, does the owner have to pay if not, or is there now a "ransome fee" a potential user must pay just to see the pics?

Sorry to be so out of touch, I bet the answer is out there somewhere --- I've just always closed a window when it had butchered pictures...

-
M

[Hoosier Daddy]

PhotoBucket went from free to purchased.
I lost about 1200 photos because I refused to pay their ransom.
Same with "webshots" before that when Hallmark bought it.
I Just keep my photos there now to eat up their bandwidth.

[Roadworthy]

Once upon a time there was an add on for Google Chrome that let you see and download those pictures.  I may still have the add on but it may not work with the current version of Chrome.  I installed Chrome so I could access some pictures, configured it, got the pictures and uninstalled Chrome.  I don't like it.  The pictures you're looking at appear to be from the Weihrauch Owners' Group.  You could see if they still exist there.

[Methuselah]

Of the link, do you see:

Photobucket
Protect more of your memories for less!

in big letters across all the pics? Is there a way, software, subscription, etc. that "removes" this from pictures or did they butcher all pics? Maybe you see pics without the "banners", but all I know is what I see...

If the "ransom banners" are added by code in the browsers java or css coding, I'd think one could "get to" the unmolested pics (not that I'd know how) ... but as I said, I'm out of touch with what happened when these hosting sites first came out. I always avoided them.

[Roadworthy]

I went back to my bookmarks.  The Chrome add on is no longer at the location I had for it.  Perhaps it no longer exists.  Try a search on You Tube for a fix to the Photo Bucket issue.  They may have changed their coding or the patch may have been moved or removed.  I don't think Photo Bucket has really damaged the originals it's simply an overlay to prevent you from seeing it well unless the ransom has been paid.  The patch simply bypassed the overlay.  I'll reiterate - see if the pics are stall available through the Weihrauch Owners' Group.

[Methuselah]

OK, did the research, looks like coding, probably in javascript.

https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php?topic=25575.0

Thomas, it's not pictures I can't see. Problem was the ones I can see are basterdized by photobucket using code to ruin them with overlays. It always worked, at least for me...

The "fix" may no longer exist if photobucket paid the browser companies THEIR extortion fees so they could collect their own.