It is mentioned in the chapter how Playboy uses digital
watermark in its centerfold images to protect the copyrights of each
image. The technology used is developed by Digimarc Corporation, a leading
company in this area. Digimarc provides software products and services
that are aimed to protect copyright of still images. The following is the
list of Digimarc products/services:
 |
Digimarc Plug-ins
Bundled in a number of leading image-editing applications from Adobe, Corel,
and Micrografx. Users can embed watermarks contain a unique Digimarc
ID, a copyright year, and image attributes such as "Restricted
Use" or "Adult Content". The plug-ins also checks for
watermarks information every time an image is opened. If a watermark
is found, then the information will be displayed on the image title
bar.
User also controls the visibility and durability of the mark, so that they
can customize the application according to an image's format and intended
use. |
|
Digimarc Batch Embedder
A stand-alone tool used to embed digital watermarks in a large
collection of digital images at once. It also allows for automation in
processing to achieve best embedding result. Output images will be in
PICT & JPEG format for Macintosh, and JPEG, TIFF, and BMP in Windows
environment. |
|
Digimarc Watermarking Software Development Kit
Designed for integration into client/server products, this software
development kit allows users to detect, read, and embed Digimarc digital
watermarks through a C/C++ callable application programming interface.
This is used mainly by image database companies and corporations with custom
imaging applications. |
|
MarcSpider
MarcSpider is a 'robot' programmed to crawl through the most highly
visited public areas in the WWW. It searches for images embedded with
Digimarc digital watermark, and then reports back the details about when and
where the images are found. It also maintains an archive of image
finds, searchable by date range. This service is good for monitoring and
identifying any potential violation in image usage.
Notice however the MarcSpider relies heavily on web search engines as the
address book of sites that it should visit, and all the search engines
combined together only covers roughly 42% of the Internet. Thus
MarcSpider will not be able to scan through the whole world wide web and
report all the sites where the images appear.
This service is offered at $1,200/year. |
|
ReadMarc
ReadMarc is a stand-alone tool used to detect and read watermark
information. Available for free downloads from Digimarc
website.
|
Another
advantage from using digital watermark is that companies can use it for
promotional use. For example, a travel photo can lead users to a travel
agent's website, a photo of a professional athlete can link fans to the
player's statistics, team standings, game listings, and related sports
news. This feature uses what is called Smart ID, another Digimarc
technology that links viewers of images to related websites. The
ordinary feature that stores only information on contact profile is called
Basic ID.
|
