Do you really need to watermark? Alternatives?

[sincere]

Just curious on how nessesary it really is. Also, what alternative is there? What do you guys do to protect your own work?

 

[Cooler_King]

I watermark purely because Picasa 3.0 has it as an optional tick box. It just adds a small personal touch to my photos I think.

Occasionally it gets in the way of the details in which case I have to re-export the image with no watermark.

 

[Josh66]

I don't do it.

As far as protecting your work, the best thing you can do is not post it online if you're that worried about other people downloading your stuff.

No watermark will stop someone from downloading your picture, and if it's too big it will just make the picture look like crap.


Either deal with the fact that people are going to download your pictures, or don't put anything online.

A nice compromise would be to only put crappy resolution pictures online. That way, when people steal them, their prints will suck.

 

[KmH]

Just curious on how nessesary it really is. Also, what alternative is there? What do you guys do to protect your own work?

It's not necessary at all to prevent copying. It can be good for advertising though.

As Josh pointed out, if your images are online a watermark/copyright statement won't stop anyone from copying it. It's not to difficult to remove someones watermark/copyright statement anyway.

You become the copyright owner as soon as you release the shutter. In the distant past you had to put a copyright statement on the image to activate your copyright. Not today.

However, if you want to persue a copyright infringement legal action the first thing an attorney is going to ask is, "Is the copyright for the image(s) registered?"

Copyright is Federal Law and to secure all your legal rights, you have to register your copyright ownership with the US Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress. www.copyright.org

So, the only sure way to keep your images from being stolen from the Internet is, don't put them there in the first place.

 

[Cooler_King]

o||||||o it's not really about protecting my work I just like to see it there but I believe you are making a dangerous statement there.

"Either deal with the fact that people are going to download your pictures, or don't put anything online"

That's nonsense. It's like saying don't own a TV if you don't want someone to steal it.

Noone has a right to your intellectual property and I certainly won't be dissuaded from posting online because idiots may right click|copy one of my images.

I don't particularly care if someone steals it however we should not foster this lassez faire attitude to copyright theft.

 

[ANDS!]

I view the watermarking in the same way as I view those godawful borders - folks (generally) think it adds a level of sophistication to the work ("View on black!!!"). If someone is going to steal your photo, and are stymied by a watermark - they will just find a photo without one on it.

If you must watermark, do so in a clever way. I forget where, but someone had a watermarking technique where they embedded their details minutely and damn near hidden in the photo; much like the MPAA does on screenprints sent to movie reviewers.

 

[Josh66]

but I believe you are making a dangerous statement there.

I don't.

"Either deal with the fact that people are going to download your pictures, or don't put anything online"

That's nonsense. It's like saying don't own a TV if you don't want someone to steal it.

No, I think it would be more like saying "Don't buy a TV and store it on your sidewalk if you don't want it to get stolen."

I don't particularly care if someone steals it however we should not foster this lassez faire attitude to copyright theft.

You would rather foster denial?

There is no question that it happens. The only question is what are you going to do about it?

You have 3 options

Option 1: Don't care.

Option 2: Post nothing.

Option 3: The compromise option. Post pictures, but make sure they're too crappy for a good print.

Myself, I am in the 'don't care' camp. I know that anyone can download any of my pictures and I don't really care. I make no attempt to stop it either (since all that would do is occupy more of my time and still not prevent anything).


I'm not saying that it's right - I'm just saying that it's the way it is.

Denying that is just naïve...

 

[Garbz]

Hit the nail on the head.

Your three options as above:
1. The don't care attitude, Post large pictures knowing that eventually someone will steal them. Sure no one has a right to, but then people do it anyway, and for the most part there is very little that can be done about it. Quick search for "copyright" in the Discussions subforum would lead to plenty of examples.

2. Yeah not an option to post nothing, you may as well close your TPF account

3. This is the one that causes the most grief in these types of discussions. There are plenty out there that think "make sure they're too crappy for a good print" means putting a watermark straight through the middle. Well if you're going to post that garbage I suggest you take option 2 above and don't post at all.

The thing to remember is that a 800px wide print may look good on the screen, but would be absolutely horrible to print. This means that when someone steals it they can simply use it on their own website to further their sorry little existence. However the resolution is too small to print in any way that would give it a sellable quality.


So the onus is on the photographer, do you share your pictures in a way that people can see them, do you cripple them to the point where people don't want to see them, or do you simply not share them to begin with. Those are your only 3 options.

 

[Josh66]

One time (the only time) I don't mind seeing a watermark is when it is a small, unobtrusive, watermark identifying either the photo or the photographer.

I'm talking about a small watermark along an edge, or in a corner with the name of the photographer, or the name of the photo.

This type of watermark does absolutely nothing for theft prevention, but hey - that's not what it's there for.

 

[Shockey]

I don't watermark. I don't worry about people stealing my images...it is going to happen....it has happened to me, no big deal.

 

[epp_b]

That's nonsense. It's like saying don't own a TV if you don't want someone to steal it.

No, I think it would be more like saying "Don't buy a TV and store it on your sidewalk if you don't want it to get stolen."

Wow, can't anyone think critically anymore? He's being intentionally ridiculous.

I'm not even going to bother arguing why "intellectual property" is an insulting oxymoron, I'm too tired to win that argument again.

 

[Rekd]

That's nonsense. It's like saying don't own a TV if you don't want someone to steal it.

No, I think it would be more like saying "Don't buy a TV and store it on your sidewalk if you don't want it to get stolen."

Wow, can't anyone think critically anymore?

Hypocrisy much?

He made a valid adjustment to the intentional ridiculousness of the TV scenario.

Having someone come into your computer (your living room) and steal a (non published on the web) photo (the TV) is much different than someone coming onto your website (the sidewalk) and stealing a (published on the web) photo (the TV).

As for the topic, I don't watermark my stuff for protection, I do it for the advertisement. I guess that means I'm just vane. I don't even watermark all my stuff. The stuff I sell doesn't usually get put on the web.

 

[Cooler_King]

Look just because theft occurs does not mean everyone should just accept it.

I am to tired to win that argument again

Good one. Unless you have 'won' your argument in court you don't have a win, you just have an opinion. Intellectual Property exists and should be respected.

How has the rise of the internet convinced everyone that they have a right to free information? Where does this unnatural right come from?

Look, I am well aware that people take images from the web however that does not mean that it should be blindly accepted.

There is many ways to stop images being stolen. So how about you become part of the solution instead part of the problem.

If you have a website or a blog you code alter the code - like this:

<script language="JavaScript1.2">

//Disable select-text script (IE4+, NS6+)- By Andy Scott
//Exclusive permission granted to Dynamic Drive to feature script
//Visit Dynamic Drive DHTML(dynamic html) & JavaScript code library for this script

function disableselect(e){
return false
}

function reEnable(){
return true
}

//if IE4+
document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false")

//if NS6
if (window.sidebar){
document.onmousedown=disableselect
document.onclick=reEnable
}
</script>

Like I said. Many ways.

 

[raptorman]

Does that script disable the print screen button of visitors? Does that script prevent a visitor from seeing your source code?

There aren't many ways to stop images being stolen, there's just one: don't put them online. It's a simple fact, it has nothing to do with right or wrong or blindly accepting it.

 

[Cooler_King]

I sincerely doubt that someone is going to go to the trouble of PRT SCRN then pasting into a powerpoint presentation only to have to crop the image, adjust the res and then export as a JPEG.

More than likely they will leave your site and try and find it elsewhere.

Does that script disable the print screen button of visitors?

No. But studies have shown that very very very few users attempt to steal an image if right click|copy is disabled. Most just move on.

Does that script prevent a visitor from seeing your source code?

Who cares about source code? Source code is is the instruction on how a broswer should render the markup language. It won't help them reconstruct an image. It may give them the filepath but unless they have FTP permissions then it won't help.

There aren't many ways to stop images being stolen, there's just one: don't put them online. It's a simple fact, it has nothing to do with right or wrong or blindly accepting it.

Again - that is just simply not true. You obviously just do not want to investigate the ways that limit image theft in which case you should be silent on the issue but you are making yourself look foolish.

It also makes me smile that those members who say

My photos are not OK to edit

are the ones advocating not putting your images on the web unless you accept theft is inevitable.

If you don't want your images edited then do not post them online. :lmao:

This comes down to attitude not morals.

If you believe that there is no way to prevent image theft then you are misguided. There are a multitude of ways and the real answer is that you are to lazy to investigate them.

But please don't pollute new photographers with your apathetic views upon the theft of peoples artwork. It's actually offensive.