Tagging Images?

[Lee]

Does anyone know anything about that method of digitally watermarking images so that you know if anyone is using your content illegally?

Im looking at a few new things right now and would be extremely interested in finding out more about this as quickly as possible.

Regards,

Lee

[studpuppy]

There are several companies which provide such watermarking. One utilizes Adobe compatiable plugins. The method used is by adding data into the noise channel or remarks of the jpg file. There are limitations on the size that can be protected. That is usually only large files. Smaller optimized images can not be protected. Secondly any really good image optimization program can remove this watermark. For example, ACDSee's image conversion utility will remove the watermark or at least a sufficient amount of it so as to render the watermark unusable.

I could go into more detail on how easily these watermarks can be defeated but I don't think this is the proper forum for such discussions.

[Lee]

Originally posted by studpuppy
There are several companies which provide such watermarking. One utilizes Adobe compatiable plugins. The method used is by adding data into the noise channel or remarks of the jpg file. There are limitations on the size that can be protected. That is usually only large files. Smaller optimized images can not be protected. Secondly any really good image optimization program can remove this watermark. For example, ACDSee's image conversion utility will remove the watermark or at least a sufficient amount of it so as to render the watermark unusable.

I could go into more detail on how easily these watermarks can be defeated but I don't think this is the proper forum for such discussions.

Okay cool do you happen to have any links to software programs that will enable me to use digital watermarking?

Regards,

Lee

[studpuppy]

http://www.digimarc.com/

But I thought I was suggesting to you not to waste your time, money, and energy in digital watermarks. I would be more than happy to demonstrate how how easy it is to remove these watermarks from any image you wish to provide as a test.

[Lee]

You were suggesting that yep but i still want to read up and see what all the fuss is about

Regards,

Lee

[Dzinerbear]

I contacted digimarc last year and one of the reasons I didn't end up using them was that their spidering function would not go into the members only areas of websites. So unless the stealer was using your images on the outside, you'd end up missing a lot.

And just my two cents, I think studpuppy is probably a unique scenario. I think most webmasters wouldn't have the capability or know-how to remove the watermarks. (From what I can see, many can barely get up a site.) So while it might be possible to do, I think a lot of people just wouldn't bother to sit down and remove watermarks from 100 images or they just wouldn't know how to do it.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[studpuppy]

You are right. I don't think that too many webmasters would know how to remove the watermarks on purpose. However it is a simple process due to editing of an image. For instance, you have a large 768x1024 image on your site. Reducing the image to say 480x600 using a non-adobe compliant program would remove the watermark. It is a format of jpeg that is known as the adobe artifact. It is actually redunant data that the Adobe programs use for their own purposes. Have you ever wondered why an image saved with the same size, resolution, and quality settings in two different programs can produce image files so vastly different. Say in PhotoImpact a 26K while PhotoShop produces a 56K file. This is due to this artifact information which can include such information as the file path of the original image on your hard drive, date of creation, editing info and such.

Quite intense this file format stuff - I would write a small tututorial on it if you guys would be interested. Could have you mb of bandwidth each day!

[Chilihost]

I think that most gallery creater programs that automatically resize large images and create thumbs will remove this info too, but I may be wrong.

cheers,
Luke

[studpuppy]

You are correct -- it is that simple. However none of the Adobe programs will automatically remove the digital watermark due to the nature of its data field used in jpeg.

[AusCoding Allan]

Hey Lee,

Brian from gunz blazing if he's around knows a fair bit about digital watermarking - I hope he sees this post because he actually uses the technique to prevent replication of his streaming videos - I think.

Cheers,

Allan

[Bell]

lee... I found this for you:
http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=4390



~Bell