found some picture online for my homework but there is a watermark from the website on the picture, what is the best way to remove it.
The watermark is there for a reason; to prevent stealing the image. Trying to circumvent the watermark is copyright infringement. Either ask the owner for the right to use the image, find a similar image on a stock images site, or create your own. You do not want to get a cease and desist order from the owners attorney.
Michael
You don’t remove it…you pay for the image.
Bob
If it’s for a homework assignment, it would probably qualify as fair use for "educational purposes". (although paying for the image would be the honourable thing to do) If you did decide to use it under fair use circumstances though, just leave the watermark in there so credit is given where it’s due.
Stoopid ImageShack makes NoScript yelp.
That’s one for Pixentral’s side of the scorecard.
🙂
Damn it Peter, we were doing fine in trying to teach the kid that not everything on the Internet is free for you to take, and you had to spoil it. Maybe there is a fair use exemption, maybe not. But the author clearly wasn’t presenting the image for free use, or he/she would not have added a watermark.
If the student wants to use the image, then it should be used with the watermark showing. He might even be teaching his instructor that he understands property rights.
If the student wants to use the image, then it should be used with the watermark showing. He might even be teaching his instructor that he understands property rights.
or maybe he could use the image and show his teacher he understands copyright law and the fair use exclusion…
i’m pretty sure that he’d have to attribute the image anyway for it to fall under fair use. but ianal…
I’m not an anthropologist, or maybe I am, but removing the identification of individual ownership (by someone else) may be an indication that the student is attempting to deny that ownership, and claim the work as his own.
Fair use exemption begins in section 107, chapter 1, of the Copyright Law of the United States in Title 17 of United States Code.
Fraudulent removal of copyright mark begins in paragraph (d), section 506, chapter 5, of the Copyright Law of the United States. Again, I’m not an anthropologist, but this discussion may be an indication of fraudulent intent, and is subject to a fine not to exceed $2500.
like i said, he might be able to claim fair use, but he’d probably have to attribute it to do that.
Or maybe Tuan could find a CC: licensed photo that suits his needs.
Unfortunately, watermarks don’t really indicate ownership, because lots of people apply watermarks to images that they don’t own at all. Often, they’re just advertising, or a poor approach to discouraging image hotlinking, applied by websites to images that they don’t own at all.
(And, of course, lack of a watermark doesn’t indicate a lack of ownership.)
both good (great) points mark.
Trying to circumvent the watermark is copyright infringement
That’s not true. The watermark is a message, not a lock.
Rob
