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Millions of people use applications with these kinds of features. A few more examples: the Scratch educational programming tool, website builders such as Webflo

Millions of people use applications with these kinds of features. A few more examples: the Scratch educational programming tool, website builders such as Webflow, diagram editors, image editors, etc. The list goes on and on. The browser is no longer just a document viewer... That ship has sailed, and overall it is a good thing. We can mitigate the risk of clipboard hijacking without burning down the house. By the way, I would guess that this is a minor risk in the grand scheme of things, as it seems that the worst risks are for technical individuals people copying programmatic commands (e.g. software engineers). For others, it is a real yet minor annoyance. Perhaps there could be an opt-in setting for allowing a site to modify the default content that is copied from a selection?

Polylactic_acid 7y ago
A decent workaround would be to have 2 clipboards. The regular untouched one and the special one. Then when you paste, apps which only take plain text will grab the regular one and apps which accept formatted copying will grab the special clipboard but also provide a "paste as plain text" so the user gets what they want every time.
- ken 7y ago
  It sounds like you're conflating two orthogonal concepts: multiple named clipboard locations, and multiple data types on one clipboard. Both already exist, and are how clipboards on major platforms have worked for decades. The Javascript interface isn't aware of these distinctions, though I'm not sure I want it to. Web apps like this that abuse one plain text clipboard will abuse multiple richly typed clipboards, too.
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  You don't have two clipboards? It's been the default on *nix OSes for ages. Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V works, but there is also the select/middle-mouse clipboard. Great for crap websites that hijack one.
- oneeyedpigeon 7y ago
  Those apps are surely already doing that - I don't think there's a way of copying arbitrary structured data to the web's abstraction of the clipboard. It doesn't address the problem the op raised - that browsers can sniff the copy event.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  There are already (at least) two clipboards in many platforms. X11/Xorg has the primary and secondary selections. MacOS has ... whatever it's got. A key problem with this is that the feature is covert, latent, poorly discoverable, and causes unexpected behaviours. Even presumably advanced users (myself, you, other HN readers) are poorly aware of this. Imagine trying to explain to your nontechnical Aunt Tilly or Uncle Kamlesh about these "different clipboards which treat what you've copied differently and access through this funky interface"?
wtallis 7y ago
> The browser is no longer just a document viewer... That ship has sailed, and overall it is a good thing. No, it really isn't. Web apps and documents using the same underlying technologies doesn't mean they have to be accessed through a single frontend that provides the worst of both worlds.
- dwaltrip 7y ago
  > Worst of both worlds I don't think that is remotely the case.

Polylactic_acid 7y ago

A decent workaround would be to have 2 clipboards. The regular untouched one and the special one. Then when you paste, apps which only take plain text will grab the regular one and apps which accept formatted copying will grab the special clipboard but also provide a "paste as plain text" so the user gets what they want every time.

ken 7y ago
It sounds like you're conflating two orthogonal concepts: multiple named clipboard locations, and multiple data types on one clipboard. Both already exist, and are how clipboards on major platforms have worked for decades. The Javascript interface isn't aware of these distinctions, though I'm not sure I want it to. Web apps like this that abuse one plain text clipboard will abuse multiple richly typed clipboards, too.
Freak_NL 7y ago
You don't have two clipboards? It's been the default on *nix OSes for ages. Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V works, but there is also the select/middle-mouse clipboard. Great for crap websites that hijack one.
oneeyedpigeon 7y ago
Those apps are surely already doing that - I don't think there's a way of copying arbitrary structured data to the web's abstraction of the clipboard. It doesn't address the problem the op raised - that browsers can sniff the copy event.
dredmorbius 7y ago
There are already (at least) two clipboards in many platforms. X11/Xorg has the primary and secondary selections. MacOS has ... whatever it's got. A key problem with this is that the feature is covert, latent, poorly discoverable, and causes unexpected behaviours. Even presumably advanced users (myself, you, other HN readers) are poorly aware of this. Imagine trying to explain to your nontechnical Aunt Tilly or Uncle Kamlesh about these "different clipboards which treat what you've copied differently and access through this funky interface"?

wtallis 7y ago

> The browser is no longer just a document viewer... That ship has sailed, and overall it is a good thing. No, it really isn't. Web apps and documents using the same underlying technologies doesn't mean they have to be accessed through a single frontend that provides the worst of both worlds.

dwaltrip 7y ago
> Worst of both worlds I don't think that is remotely the case.