Don't f*** with copy and paste

Don't F*** With Paste - Chrome Web Store

Background

It annoys me to no end when a web application prevents me from being able to paste content into an input field, or copy it out. If I paste an incorrect email address, that's my own damn fault. I use tools like 1Password to remember all kinds of things for me, and it's actually more error prone for me to type out all the characters than it is for me to copy from 1Password and paste into a text box.

Solution

This is a dead simple Google Chrome extension that removes copy, cut and paste blocking, by preventing sites from interfering with "copy", "cut", and "paste" browser events.

This extension does not try to prevent a site from also interfering with keyboard shortcuts related to those browser actions (control-v, command-v, etc.), nor does this extension prevent sites from interfering with the "contextmenu" event (right click menu). For those super annoying sites that interfere with keyboard shortcuts and context menu, using Edit -> Paste from the browser's menu might be required.

Usage

The easiest way to activate the extension for a given site is to click on the extension icon , then optionally edit the auto-generated pattern, lastly click "Save":

After that, the extension icon should now be blue, meaning the extension is active for your current tab:

Version 2 Upgrade

Version 2 is a major update to the extension. It makes it much easier to ensure the extension is only running on sites that are bad actors with copy & paste events and it also provides visibility into the active/inactive state of the extension for each tab.

In order to provide the smoothest experience as possible, the extension needs to know when you change active tabs. In order for the extension to know about that event, it needs the tabs permission, which Chrome describes as "can read and change all your data on websites you visit." That description is very scary, and is certainly not what this extension is doing. Being an open-sourced project, you can always read all the code to see how this extension works, and what it's [not] doing with your data.

To read more about the version 2 upgrade, see: the wiki page.

Bookmarklet

If for some reason you prefer to use a bookmarklet to accomplish the same goal, you can do so by adding a bookmark to the following URI:

javascript:forceBrowserDefault=(e=>{e.stopImmediatePropagation();return true;});['copy','cut','paste'].forEach(e=>document.addEventListener(e,forceBrowserDefault,true));

Now if you encounter a problematic page, you can click on this bookmark (or enter a keyword like dfwp into the address bar) in order to liberate your clipboard once more. Using this method can also help to mitigate fingerprinting, even if you are using Chrome. Note: this will not prevent blocking of clipboard events in iframes.