Why Doesn’t Photoshop Feature Non-Removable Copyright Data?

Copyright and Photoshop

Why doesn’t Photoshop – powerful as it is to do almost anything to an image – provide a secure way to embed copyright and other info then lock it so it cannot be removed?

The short answer is: it’s useless. If it can be seen on the computer screen, it can be manipulated. “If the image data is accessible to someone, there’s no way to force them to keep the copyright notice with it,” explains John Nack, Photoshop evangelist.

There are many programs that can open and re-save JPEGs, TIFFs, and even PSDs. These programs can remove or change metadata.

Nack says, “The only way to come close is to embed the copyright in the image with a watermark, either visible or invisible. Digimarc can do it with a mostly-invisible watermark. The less visible it is, the less robust it is to image manipulation.”

[Via: PhotoshopNews.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.