What happens is that when you select text from some web pages, the site uses JavaScript to report what you’ve copied to an analytics server and append an attribution URL to the text that you paste.
What a terrible idea.
As John Gruber put it in a 2010 article on the subject:
It’s a bunch of user-hostile SEO bullshit.
I looked at the Tynt website, and soon found that users can opt out. o/ http://www.tynt.com/opt_out.php
If you don't want Tynt tracking copy activity or adding attribution links, you can disable Tynt, by clicking the Opt Out button below. You will need to Opt Out for each browser you use, and have cookies enabled.
It appears that there aren’t any other competitor. I hope it stays that way.
But what I wish even more, is that Websites would just NOT do this. It’s not privacy that concerns me, it’s the fact that in many cases, what I want to paste is lost.
In all cases, what I want to paste is what I select.
I don’t want to need any work-around. Yes, I can view the source of a page and select from there. It’s tedious. Yes, I can paste in a text editor, strip to what I need, copy again and paste what I want. It’s also tedious.