Hello,

Back in January, I wrote to the list requesting information about
watermark software for use in digital images.  Response was a bit thin,
but I thought I'd follow up with some of my findings in case it's of
interest.
I did come across an article called “Going Digital” by Eileen
Mathias, in NetContact,
winter 2004 pp.2-7, which comments that:

"…To protect your images from unauthorized use, there are options. The
passive method is to serve low-resolution images with inadequate detail
for publication.  Alternatively, there are products available that
create digital watermarks, visible or invisible, that are applied to
each image.  The most notable of these is Digimarc.  Digimarc and others
base their fees on per image use.  It includes an optional service that
crawls the web, looking for your illegally used images, and then reports
back."

I have checked out the websites of a few watermark software companies.
It appeared Digimarc was the only one to offer the web crawling service.
 On their website, they explain that the technology "...differs from the
traditional concept of water marking in that the watermark is
imperceptible."  Their watermarks carry "...an image signature
containing copyright and owner information. The creator serial number in
the image signature can be used to obtain complete contact details about
the image owner or distributor."

I'd be curious to know if anyone out there has used the Digimarc
software, and if they'd recommend it or not.


Meanwhile, one person from the list did write:

"My husband tells me Adobe Acrobat can do this, he uses this feature in
his
businesses all the time. [We use Acrobat]...quite regularly and it is
extremely simple."

I have not had a chance to try out this suggestion of using Adobe
Acrobat, however.  I was under the impression that it is used more for
text documents.  Has anyone used Acrobat to embed watermarks in
photographs? Especially for photos that will appear on a website?

Regards,
Michelle Watson