Watermark

Watermarks are used on currency, postage stamps, and other secure documents to prevent counterfeiting. Such watermarks may only be seen by holding the item up to the light as they are embedded in the paper stock and cannot be removed.

Digital watermarking is a technique that adds a noticeable pattern or an image to digital media to identify ownership and prevent unauthorized duplication:

Watermaking documents

Watermarks can be applied to documents by document editors by nominating text or transparent images so that they appear in the background of a document when viewed or printed. Such watermarks cannot be removed.

Watermarking digital media

A digital watermark is a marker that is embedded in a signal, such as audio, video, or image data. It is usually a semi-transparent image or pattern that is placed over the original content. Digital watermarks are often used to identify the ownership of copyrighted material.

Watermaking live video

Live video streams such as those for live sporting events and online classes can be watermarked to include title, author and also sponsor's logos. One notable software for overlaying watermarks on live video as it is being recorded is OBS Studio which can be used with overlay services such as BallStream to overlay a live scoreboard for snooker and pool events.

Digimarc

Digimarc was a process introduced in Adobe Photoshop for photograhers to attach a message to their digital images. The watermark was not apparent but could be viewed by viewing the file's properties in some editors. While most useful for adding a business card to images submitted to advertising agencies, Digimarc was no deterrent to plagiarism because such images could easily be removed by simply opening them in an image editor other than Photoshop and then saving it with a new filename.

Usage scenarios

  • Watermarks can be used to mark intellectual property.
  • Watermarks can discourage piracy and plagiarism.
  • Watermaks can identify the user that made the copy.

The most commonly watermarked digital media today is PDF and video.

Watermarking solutions for online images

Most CMS like WordPress list a variety of plugins for watermarking and the most notable of those is the SafeGuard Media plugin that not only provides options for watermarking, but it also provides copy protection from all avenues of exploit including PrintScreen and screen recording.

 

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