Digital watermarking is the process of embedding a translucent mark on digital files for identification and authenticity purposes. It can be visible or invisible and is used to deter theft, track distribution, and encourage software purchases. Software products are available to assist in creating and editing digital watermarks.
Digital refers to something like text or images that is stored electronically, as opposed to text or data that is in concrete form, for example, on a piece of paper. A watermark, in the publishing world, refers to a translucent mark embedded in the paper to identify the maker and/or as a mark of authenticity to deter counterfeiters, in the case of currency. Digital watermarking is the incorporation of a similar mark on digital files. It is related to and used for the same purposes as steganography, the science of information hiding.
The digital watermark can be visible or invisible. At first it might seem that invisible digital watermarking may be useless, but in reality this type of watermarking is usually designed so that it is only invisible on the website where it has been embedded and becomes visible if the material is transferred, copied, or pasted in another place. Such a digital watermark may be overlooked by thieves or plagiarists, but serves to unmask them. Visible watermarking, on the other hand, can serve to deter theft in the first place.
Another use of visible watermarking is in demo versions of software applications. While some demos restrict use by turning off features or licensing for a limited time, often 30 days, others allow full use of features indefinitely, but put a digital watermark on every saved or exported file, in so that these files cannot easily be used or shared in any commercial place. This encourages users to purchase a working copy of the software.
A third use of digital watermarking is in tracking the distribution of a digital file. This can be done in the spirit of sending a message in a bottle and seeing where a file ends up, how many times it’s collected, and how it’s used. Alternatively, it can be used to trace an illegal distribution path.
Software products are available to assist in digital watermarking. These products help in creating and editing digital watermarks. Watermarks can be based on an image, such as a logo, text copyright notice, website URL, or simply the word SAMPLE for images used for demonstration purposes. The digital watermarking software has features like filters to add effects to watermarks, batch processing, and image format adjustment for added security. Digital watermarking software can be a standalone software application or it can be an add-on to an existing program to extend its functionality.
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