Posted by Joel Shepherd on 07/14/06 15:14

"Jonathan N. Little" <lws4art@centralva.net> wrote:

> Dylan Sung wrote:
>
> > The only good solution is to pack a watermark into your image. For that
> > you need a graphics editor and save the resultant image with no other
> > layer info.
>
> Elsewhere in this thread I address ineffectiveness of watermark
> technology...the watermark is only detectable when you use professional
> graphic software AND if you have the watermark plug-in AND you bother to
> look for it! If the thief had such they could make their own images
> rather than steal them!

It's not like the thief needs those things in order for the watermark to
be a deterrent. The point isn't to warn off the thief: it's to embed
information in the image that can be used to prove ownership. It doesn't
have to be easily accessible to all.

> Another thing to note, the watermark is lost with a screen capture, so
> an image can very easily be cleansed of the watermark.

But the screen capture technique introduces another problem. Take a
screenshot of a 600px wide image on your 96dpi resolution monitor, and
what prize do you end up with? A 600px wide image at 96dpi. Not exactly
stunning quality, and certainly not something that can be enlarged (on
screen or paper) to any significant degree. It has almost no value,
other than display on other screens. For fine visual art, screen
captures aren't much of a threat.

--
Joel.

[Back to original message]