Protecting Artwork?

[liannef]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I've been trying to decide how to watermark my designs and I did it as pale grey text in Coreldraw with no transparency and if you brighten the design enough it will disappear! I thought by using solid text that this would solve this problem but seems not, however if you try to brighten say a Shutterstock watermark then it never totally goes so what are they doing that I'm not? or is it just best to upload small images?
Thanks
Lianne

[AlanD]

I just put my watermark lettering in White and add transparency

[GoonerGary]

I wouldn't be too concerned, if I wanted to remove a Shutterstock logo I would use the clone tool and take it out. There is no complete method that is perfect. Either vandalise the product with a logo or use small images. But as someone who has had over 400 small images uploaded to Alibaba to make counterfeits by a scumbag thief, the only solution is not to display flat product mockups and take actual photographs of your product. Amazon for example don't let you use watermarks and ebay are the same (I think).

So what if there is a digimarc? You'll maybe find your image anyway when looking at the competition or do a Google similar image search. It is how you decide to enforce the infringement is what really matters in the end. Why pay all that money to digimarc? I'm very fortunate that I'm a vero member (on trial) and can get stuff taken down. On another occasion I complained to the hosting company and got images removed, but taking it as far as getting money out of people for infringement is another ball game. So I don't bother with watermarks, just images good enough to sell my products. A little logo advertisement in the corner can help with sales, but don't let it ruin your image.

[bespokevans]

I add a watermark using PS, just add image or wording and turn the opacity down to 20-30 percent

[GoldRapt]

But as someone who has had over 400 small images uploaded to Alibaba to make counterfeits by a scumbag thief, the only solution is not to display flat product mockups and take actual photographs of your product. Amazon for example don't let you use watermarks and ebay are the same (I think).

.

Before anyone admonishes me,I realie this was posted 9 years ago but i was suprised that noone replied at the time saying thats what they did.

i presume GoonerGAry meant a photo whilst worn ona product.

Thats interesting when compared with marketing in 2024, where yu see seller wearing their printed garment on Tiktok/Instagram/Twitter and other social media plaforms.

Has this become the norm for everyone now or are some still using traditional mthods?

[socialgiraffe]

Sadly, copyright theft is common place and those that do it have no regards to who they tread on or lives that they are affecting. Even those who copy images such as massive music groups such as Iron Maiden etc have a direct affect on the "little man" such as me who does work for these guys.

I suspect it is probably worse for you, at least I have the backing of people wanting official merchandise and not cheap crap banged out by bedroom w**kers

If watermarking is not an option (some can spoil the image) then perhaps use graphic templates to place your images on garments where it is distorted to fit the garment making it harder to copy. Sadly if its a great idea/image people will still copy it though.

Remeber, these people have absolutely no creative bone in their body and instead set out to steal, they are a common criminal and when you realise you are dealing with scum like that then you understand that there is not much that can be done.

As you can see, I sit on the fence with this one :-)

[GoldRapt]

LoL, Thanks for replying Simon.