Make a file read-only but Not Downloadable in Canvas

(3)
This was a feature request in the old forums that our faculty were particularly interested in (posted originally by Glen Parker)

 

It would be helpful if it were possible to make a file visible by students, but for them not to be downloadable. I can see a few use cases for this feature, including a) copyrighted material and b) answers to final exams, etc.

 

  Comments from Instructure...

October 2015 update from Cosme Salazar

 

As is often the case, David Lyons is right on the money with how we are thinking about this feature request. Building a feature to "lock down" access to files would give teachers a false sense of security regarding access to their files. For many file types, there is no way to give a student the ability to open a file on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, without giving them the ability to download (and share that file). Any object shown on a computer can be copied with a screenshot or a picture taken on a camera phone. It is very unlikely we would ever develop this type of feature.

 

If there are other use cases or workflows that could be used to meet a teacher's need to protect content. Please describe them in the comments.

37 Comments
kona
Community Champion

You make a great point  @dlyons ​!

DaleDrees
Community Champion

David Lyons I read the same thing on this feature request and agree that preventing students from downloading files is something that I would not pursue but I think this conversation moved towards more of the inline preview for files as Christine mentioned in one of her comments.

"In my opinion, it would be really great to have a way to circumvent the File Download dialog box that opens every time you're trying to open a file in Canvas. The icon for the inline preview is not always very intuitive for users, and lots of users have found the "forced" download to be rather annoying. I think this especially makes sense for course documents that may be opened regularly from a Canvas site. For instance, you probably don't want to be prompted to download the syllabus every time you want to reference it."

Maybe a different feature request that focused on the inline preview instead of making a file read-only and not downloadable?

dlyons
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

I agree; a new feature request clearly stating that desired functionality/behavior where it can be discussed would make sense to me. Otherwise the official response to this feature request could be confusing to people not reading every single comment after the initial description at the top.

christine_mckeo
Community Novice

 @dlyons ​, I definitely see your point. At this point, I think we've gathered enough votes to officially warrant a response from Instructure. I was going to wait for their response before proceeding with a brand new feature request (and having to start voting all over!), but then I realized tomorrow is September 2nd, so I rushed to get this in -- don't know if I got it in in time for it to be open for voting by tomorrow, but it was worth a shot:

christine_mckeo
Community Novice

Or, you know. I could also just edit the idea, completely change the content and the title, but keep all the votes. :smileydevil: /  Smiley Wink

judyk
Community Contributor

I'm glad that I read through these comments - much like the others I was mislead in the real intention of this thread. :smileygrin:

DaleDrees
Community Champion

I say - Keep the Votes!!!

hensonj
Community Novice

agreed!

csalazar
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

As is often the case,  @dlyons ​ is right on the money with how we are thinking about this feature request. Building a feature to "lock down" access to files would give teachers a false sense of security regarding access to their files. For many file types, there is no way to give a student the ability to open a file on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, without giving them the ability to download (and share that file). Any object shown on a computer can be copied with a screenshot or a picture taken on a camera phone. It is very unlikely we would ever develop this type of feature.

If there are other use cases or workflows that could be used to meet a teacher's need to protect content. Please describe them in the comments.

christine_mckeo
Community Novice

Thanks for the reply, Deactivated user​. As I think we realized along the way in the comments, I think the issue is not so much making sure that students CAN'T download files, but that we wanted to perhaps re-think how we present those files to users. I'd encourage anyone who had any interest in this idea to go to up-vote " modifiedtitle="true" title="Prevent files from automatically downloading; opt to open a document a...​I think this idea more accurately describes the issue that we wound up stumbling upon in the comments.

biray
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

A similar idea has resurfaced and will be open for voting on July 6: " style="color: #2989c5;

hensonj
Community Novice

The new Idea is open for voting!
uh_yes.gif

Lets get this one knocked out quicker than any before. My goal is 100 votes in 7 days.

you can access the new idea here:

hensonj
Community Novice

So, here I go again!

whitesnake.gif

My goal was 100 votes in...

8 (2).gif

We are close, but still need 15 votes to make the totally inconsequential date I arbitrarily set!

letsdothis.jpg

NOTE: I recognize that blinking text is HORRIBLE design... its a joke. cant you just take 30 seconds to enjoy a joke.  Smiley Happy

d_j_wilson
Community Novice

I think this is an essential feature, and if it were introduced we wouldn't have to rely on external plugins for this purpose. Panopto (for media files) does this, but only has a one folder structure!! and then that requires internal links to be made up.

It would be so much easier if Canvas could prevent downloads (so making media, at least, streamed only)

I think this feature should be very seriously considered as soon as is possible. 

With thanks

ann_wilson
Community Member

Was this feature ever explored or implemented? Instructors have a huge interest in academic integrity and features like this would help to promote Canvas as a safe place for instructor content. I've tried the workaround with the code on pdfs, but it does not seem to work. Please advise if there is another HTML workaround that will help to make PDFs available to students in Canvas, but they cannot download the PDFs. A read-only preview option would be helpful to add in the document settings where you can select the visibility of files in a Canvas course. 

matthew_metcalf
Community Novice

I find the response from Instructure to be a bit flippant, honestly. Legal cases have decided that what instructors develop remains their intellectual property. So basically, Canvas asks me to give up any protections I might have on my work in posting it to the space? What would motivate me to use materials from my private practice in the field in the online classroom if I could not protect it (e.g. "read only)? What if I was using a draft of a white paper, experimental material, or unpublished creative works to demonstrate a point (covered, in theory, under Fair Use)- but which I cannot lock down who can take the whole or a part of it? If students want to screen grab material, so be it- but that takes intention far beyond a simple download, demonstrating an intent if they were to reuse or repurpose or "leak" material I shared. Instead, Canvas says I should "stick to the textbook." Nice. I hope this gets another shot at a vote.

flee1
Community Participant

Any word on this feature? It would be nice so that my students don't download copies of documents repeatedly every time they need to check a PDF file. Right now it is not intuitive that they should click the tiny icon to the right.