Does anyone use Digimarc and why is it any better than just a layer of text?

J
Posted By
JMF
Apr 25, 2004
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778
Replies
14
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Closed
Is Digimarc an effective way to minimize image theft?
Why not just add a layer of text with a copyright message to the image? Does Digimarc do anything more than this would?
Thanks a lot.
John

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HD
hot_denim
Apr 25, 2004
Digimarc HIDES the copyright information inside the image. It alters the pixle data. The aim is to produce no visigle noticible modificaton of the image, but it is modified.

Then the copyright info etc, can be read from marked images via Plugins and other tools.

A digimarc image does not contain a visible copyright text.

Seeming as the copyright info is invisible, I would say that it is not a WAY at all to PREVENT theft, rather more of a way to detect if an image is originally yours…

The hidden data can survive some Image file format transfers, JPEG compression, And modification to the image. (Although it has its extents, and will break if there is too much modification)
J
JMF
Apr 25, 2004
hot_denim,
Thank you.

This raises another question for me.
What is the point of hiding the copyright info?
What good will it do if noone can see it?
Thanks.
J.
L
larry
Apr 25, 2004
And I’ve read that it becomes corrupted and useless if the image is altered by resizing.

Larry Berman
HD
hot_denim
Apr 25, 2004
There are tools/digimarc website that regularly crawls the web and can find images that are originaly YOURS.

People can ONLY see it when they open an image in the Digimarc plugin reading software. The software will tell them who it is marked to.

Elso no VISIBLE image marking.

Its more DETECT theft than PREVENT theft, because very few people check each image for a mark.

If you want to prevent. THen you must DETER and SHOW something. I.e. maybe a copyright notice. But instead of a normal text notice. Add a notice that is more discreet, i.e where the TEXT is not one colour but LIGHTENTS the image underneath.
HD
hot_denim
Apr 25, 2004
Larry;

No does not become corrupted on resizing. To some extent the Mark Data is preserved, but at severer resizing can be invalid as if the file is not marked at all.
L
larry
Apr 25, 2004
Isn’t Digimarc a subscription service where you pay by the image?

Larry Berman
HD
hot_denim
Apr 25, 2004
Its is subscription. By the image ?, erm with going to digimarc.com and checking erm I would say pay for a Duration or an amount of images or something.
DM
Don_McCahill
Apr 25, 2004
Re: What is the point of hiding the copyright info?
What good will it do if noone can see it?

You don’t need to put a copyright on your images. They are copyright automatically, as soon as you publish them. If a person steals them, the fact that he "didn’t know they were copyright" is no defense. Almost everything on the Internet is copyright. You should assume so, unless there is a message on the page saying that something is "not" copyright, or that it "is" public domain.
J
JMF
Apr 25, 2004
Don,
Thank you. I know that this it true.
However, I also know that there are people who don’t respect the copyright laws and that it’s hard to police AND I don’t want to spend my time policing it.
I’d rather do everything I can up front to prevent it.
L
LenHewitt
Apr 25, 2004
John,

There is NO WAY of preventing folks from stealing images you place on the web. You can make it more difficult, but you cannot prevent it.

By the time they view an image it is already on their HDD in the browser cache.

There are Javascripts available to prevent right-clicking etc., but it takes less than 5-seconds to by-pass them.

If you don’t want it stealing, don’t put it on the web.
I
ID._Awe
Apr 26, 2004
Actually Explorer 6 has a mouse-over toolbar for images that allows you to save/send/print with a left-click and totally by-passes the right-click. No one has found a way around this yet as far as I know.
HD
hot_denim
Apr 26, 2004
ID Awe

Yes there is a way round it the Microsoft implemented and documented. There is an additional attribute of the IMG tag that you set/use to not have this behavior on the mouse over on the image.
MP
Marian_Pierre-Louis
Apr 27, 2004
PC Magazine has had a lot of good articles on protecting images. You can see their most recent here:

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1118793,00.asp>
I
ID._Awe
Apr 27, 2004
HD: What are you talking about?

MP-L: Didn’t deal with my issue.

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