website question: why do some websites do copy and paste with non-visible characters ?

[steve2470]

For example, I just copied and pasted an article from online Newsweek. I had to edit out non-visible characters and correct the text to what was visible. Why does that occur only on some websites ?

on edit: W3C HTML validator output for this page, http://www.newsweek.com/id/164503:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fid%2F164503&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

54 Errors, 31 warning(s)

CSS validator: Sorry! We found the following errors (141)
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fid%2F164503&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&lang=en

[shraby]

1. When there are pics in the article, try to

stay as close to the actual text as possible. If there is a photo in the middle of the article, you'll have to do a second copy/paste for the part that comes after the photo.

[steve2470]

2. this is the article I'm talking about

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164503

It did copy and paste a bit weird.

[melody]

3. Did you try "copy as text"?

Otherwise, you're fighting against the ways of html and web programming.

[steve2470]

4. I'm using Opera 9.6 - I don't think it has that option nt

[BanTheGOP]

5. NO SECRET...

It is PRECISELY because they want to avoid "cut and pasters" to copy the data with a machine or by mouse swipe. In most cases, they use a java applet and vary their encryption scheme so that it can't be readily duplicated. This is done so automatic harvesters don't have the full text available to swipe.

I approve of this method, TO A DEGREE. For instance, we need protection against republicanized corporations from stealing our content, but it can be abused by the same corporations, as in Newsweek. To each his own.

[steve2470]

6. ah thanks

This mystery has befuddled me for years lol