Watermarks in FL and SV

joseelias · #1 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 11:57 AM

Hi,

Have you noticed how easy is to clone out the watermarks in Fotolia and Snapvillage?

Considering that many sales are for web purposes, and the size they present is enough for most web uses I find this worrying. In the case of Fotolia is even more serious because we can zoom several parts of the images and then stitch them together.

Personally I’ve sent both agencies mails stating these issues, and may even consider deleting my portfolio from them if things don’t change. And wouldn’t loose much too…

If this concerns you as well, I think it would be a good thing to mail them and pressure for a change.

Regards,
Jose Elias
Jos? Elias's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

RTimages · #2 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 02:28 PM

Yes I agree with you about the watermarks and I can say I could remove a watermark from an image on any of the stock sites if I wanted too, and I'm sure most of the people here could.

Am I bothered - No, because why would anybody bother spending the time and trouble doing all that for a web sized image (which is all a screen capture image would be useful for) when they can buy it for a dollar!

Personally speaking it's not something that concerns me too much.

louoates · #3 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 02:42 PM

Doesn't bother me either. I'd rather save my concerns for the way the sites are upload/download friendly.

Karimala · #4 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 05:17 PM

I can't help but think the "new and improved" Fotolia watermark is yet another bug. Anything is possible over there, but changing the watermark to something any kid can clone out doesn't make good business sense. It probably has something to do with the watermark problems they were having before v2 rolled out.

joseelias · #5 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTimages

Am I bothered - No, because why would anybody bother spending the time and trouble doing all that for a web sized image (which is all a screen capture image would be useful for) when they can buy it for a dollar!

Considering how easy it is to clone out those watermarks, believe me, it requires more work buying the image than cloning out the watermark.:-?

I can clone out most of those watermarks in 5 seconds or less. Much faster than a download. And web size is probably the largest number of sales made in Micro, so it's not something to despize.

Also the "1 dollar" is the base of this industry. If, in the life of an image, you get it stolen a ten times, multiply that for a portfolio and see how much you may loose in long term.

We're in the business of Micro, not free images.

Regards,
Jose elias

sharpshot · #6 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 06:32 PM

I have seen stolen images with the watermark left on in the past. It is a concern if it is easy to remove.

I am tempted to only send my snaps to snap village. Not worth uploading my best photos there. The FT watermark would be harder to clone out but I am not going to upload there for a while. Hope both sites see sense soon.

With so many sites to choose from, I will spend time on those that give my photos a bit more protection.

helix7 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-20-2007, 01:00 PM

I uploaded a set of 55 icons to SV (I don't do sets this large usually but SV allows me to up the price). The watermark covers the first 4 icons in the set, and the other 51 are uncovered.

I run into similar problems at other sites, and it's not possible to cover all icons in a set with a watermark. But many sites are much better at covering most of the individual elements in my images. The watermarks need to be centered and I really like the thin "X" that some sites put across the whole image.

eendicott · #8 (**permalink**) 07-20-2007, 01:50 PM

Bryan at Lucky Oliver mentioned something in another forum where the position taken is if the watermarks aren't huge, the thieves tend to link to them rather than download them and clone them out. A linked image is easier to find (through server reports) than one that has been copied off directly. This may be what FL and SV are doing.

sharpshot · #9 (**permalink**) 07-20-2007, 03:31 PM

The SV watermark doesn't even have to be cloned out. I uploaded an isolated object and the watermark missed it completely. It would be easy to take it and add it to another photo, so I deleted it.

They will only get my photos if the watermark covers something