Another stolen image.... (Fill your life by Larus)

Sony 16-35mm f/4 Vario-Tessar T* FE ZA OSS Lens

08/09/2007 02:45:13 PM · #55

Check out this link:
7 ways to prevent image theft

These are pretty good

bryanbrazil

Sony Alpha a7R III

08/09/2007 02:45:28 PM · #56

I agree...a watermark across the entire image ruins it. I don't think I'd mind a small watermark in the corner of every image, though. At least then someone would have to crop the photo to be able to use it.

Originally posted by Gordon:

Originally posted by Brad:

Originally posted by Gordon:

Corrupting the images to be unviewable destroys the purpose of the site.

Corrupting as in watermarking?
I just made a DPChallenge watermark and ran it somewhat aggressively on a random sample of images to see the effect if something like that was added to images after the challenge. If every shot had it, after a little while, you don't really see it that much, but will be a deterrent to those that want to "borrow" them, as they now have some editing to do to get rid of it.

Yup, I pretty much think those samples you show are all ruined.

That's fine if you are selling them through a stock agency where people want to be able to do mock up pages , but ruins them from an artistic and viewer standpoint.

You have to look at the cost vs. benefit. The images look terrible to all viewers, so that you can stop some teenager claiming its her own photo on some other valueless image sharing site.

All of the images already have a prominently displayed copyright message. What does another one do ?

08/09/2007 02:45:29 PM · #57

Originally posted by Brad:

Even at 640 pixels, images can still be printed with pretty darn good results,

Yup. They can. Unobtrusive watermarks don't do much to stop that either.

Originally posted by Brad:

and basically 2 options exist:
Ruin them as you say, or don't put them on the web.

Yup. Those are two options. Or the third option is sell your high resolution images for thousands of dollars and look at low resolution image theft as cheap advertising. Works quite well :)

The fourth option is not to sweat what a few teenagers and unethical printers
do with your images, share them, enjoy them and live your life.

Message edited by author 2007-08-09 14:48:52.

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

08/09/2007 02:48:01 PM · #58

Originally posted by metatate:

Check out this link:
7 ways to prevent image theft

These are pretty good

Yup - they all summarise how pointless this quite well.

The only effective method is destructive watermarking. The linked site even states that pretty clearly, with the following 'con'

Cons

* Ruins the purity of the displayed image

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

08/09/2007 02:50:50 PM · #59

I'd like to see this topic as a new Poll:

[ ] Watermark images used in challenges.
[ ] Do not watermark images used in challenges.
[ ] Watermark images, but only after a challenge has ended.
[ ] Watermark images, during and after a challenge.
[ ] Watermark images, during and after a challenge, leaving the option up to the member.
[ ] Watermark images only after a challenge, leaving the option up to the member.
[ ] Hire Art Roflmao as the official village burner for those that want to "borrow" images from DPC.

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

08/09/2007 02:55:44 PM · #60

Originally posted by Brad:

That last option might get the most selections. ;o)

I think you've covered all options with respect to watermarking though.

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

08/09/2007 02:57:40 PM · #61

Originally posted by mk:

That's okay...I question the merit of people putting a big fat bright copyright symbol right in the middle of all their photos, making them totally undesirable to look at...but doesn't mean that doesn't happen either. ;)

yep, it does make them rather unattractive, to say the least. however, you can get enough sense of the image to decide whether or not you'd like to pay for one that you can enjoy larger, without any marking ;-)

and, you can see enough of the image to understand whatever point it had, as well...

Message edited by author 2007-08-09 14:58:28.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

08/09/2007 02:57:57 PM · #62

I think some of these other methods would be helpful also so you might wanna add on or more of them into the poll somehow.

[ ] Prevent drag/drop and contextual menu use on images only
[ ] Prevent drag/drop and contextual menu use on images only as well as add watermark

Message edited by author 2007-08-09 14:58:46.

justamistere

Nikon D3s

08/09/2007 02:58:11 PM · #63

I'm sure it's possible to write a program thea if they right-click it would also attach a virus to their copy. Anything you view is in your cache on your PC. Even Macromedia streaming movies can be captured.

I'd say use Steganography to put a program into the .jpg file that puts a text-watermark on the .jpg saying it has been stolen. if it detects that it is stored and displayed in a different domain then dpc.com

Theoretically. this can be done, I'm not sure how many bytes it would increase the .jpg size. That is the code can be added, but how would you extract it and trigger it to run?

Steganography replaces the "lossed" pixels in a "Lossy" .jpg compression with data. I've seen some code and decode programs to send messages embedded in .jpg files this way.

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

08/09/2007 02:59:28 PM · #64

There are too many options on the poll suggestion to produce conclusive results. Simplify it to see if DPC members want images to be watermarked or not. If they do, then examine the possible ways to accomplish it.

thegrandwazoo

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

08/09/2007 03:00:27 PM · #65

Stego is very cool but way too much involved to use it practically.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

08/09/2007 03:01:08 PM · #66

I'm new to the internets ;P! Is it possible to make an image disappear when a key is hit on the keyboard (print-screen)?

fotomann_forever

08/09/2007 03:01:43 PM · #67

Originally posted by Brad:

[ ] Keep copyright lawyer on retainer and set up DPC legal defense fund with our court winnings. Sue the pants off every offender.

Melethia

Canon EOS-80D

08/09/2007 03:03:32 PM · #68

As an interesting aside to disabling drag and drop, I often will drag and drop an image from someone else if I'm trying to provide processing suggestions - I drag it into PS and play with it, with the owner's permission mostly, but occasionally with a challenge entry if I want to make specific suggestions when commenting.

slide12345678

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

08/09/2007 03:04:00 PM · #69

Originally posted by metatate:

I'm new to the internets ;P! Is it possible to make an image disappear when a key is hit on the keyboard (print-screen)?

08/09/2007 03:05:04 PM · #70

Poll?
Should DPC:

[ ] Add check box when submitting images "add watermark to image after challenge"

[ ] Prevent drag/drop and contextual menu use on images

[ ] Prevent drag/drop and contextual menu use on images only as well as add option for watermark

[ } Change nothing

If we decide to add a watermark we could vote on that.

08/09/2007 03:05:25 PM · #71

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

Or just let members optionally watermark their images during voting and you'll see how popular or not it is, if winning, watermarked images predominate ?

After all, those are the only ones liable to be getting stolen.

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

08/09/2007 03:06:43 PM · #72

Originally posted by metatate:

Could we just drop any more discussion about drag/drop & context menu changes as they are completely ineffectual, and annoying at the same time ?

No advantage, lots of disadvantage. Your earlier link demonstrates that, but forgets to mention all the other suggestions are trivial to bypass.

Watermarking at least serves a purpose, distasteful, or not.

Message edited by author 2007-08-09 15:08:31.

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

08/09/2007 03:09:44 PM · #73

Originally posted by Gordon:

Originally posted by jmsetzler:
There are too many options on the poll suggestion to produce conclusive results. Simplify it to see if DPC members want images to be watermarked or not. If they do, then examine the possible ways to accomplish it.

Or just let members optionally watermark their images during voting and you'll see how popular or not it is, if winning, watermarked images predominate ?

After all, those are the only ones liable to be getting stolen.

lol.. it's against the rules in basic :)