Do you use watermark

I see a lot of threads on creating watermarks, but I was wondering how many people use them and why? Ive never used one simply do to that fact I see it as fruitless. Someone can edit out a watermark pretty easily now a days.

I put depends because a friend does it sometimes. Hes to the point where hes getting paid jobs and clients, but still does free work for friends family and his portfolio. On all his paid stuff he doesnt watermark but on his free stuff he does. Not that hes worried about it getting stolen and sold but because he considers it free advertising.

From memory, according to USA copyright laws if someone actively removes a watermark it hugely increases their financial penalty. It also makes stealing the photo a bit more difficult.

I always put a watermark on images that I post to flickr. Some watermarks are inconspicuous. It just makes me feel a little more "safe". I also try to only post small sized images that will become grainy if someone tries to enlarge.

I no longer post images to POTN because some people here have no respect and will download, edit, and repost your image even though you don't give them permission to do so. Sad.

I shoot local sports and I place a watermark slap bang, dead centre of every photo of my website.
I also only upload low res images (1024px long side, 100-200kb)

The people who could remove my watermark are NOT the people who are screen-shotting my photos.
It is the kids and their parents who do it to post to their Facebook accounts or their mobile phones.
They don't care that the watermark is their - it is just not even a consideration for them.

I'm not concerned about them doing this and my watermark makes it clear where they go the photo = advertising and "brand awareness"
To get a print or a "clean" image they need to come to me so I see it as a win-win situation.
They get a screen only photo and I get brand awareness and the print/digital orders.

tim wrote in post #17781543
From memory, according to USA copyright laws if someone actively removes a watermark it hugely increases their financial penalty. It also makes stealing the photo a bit more difficult.

From Carolyn E Wright's blog: Section 1202 of the U.S. Copyright Act makes it illegal for someone to remove the watermark from your photo so that it can disguise the infringement when used. The fines start at $2500 and go to $25,000 in addition to attorneys' fees and any damages for the infringement. And you don't have to have registered your photo in advance to recover under this statute.
The pertinent part of the statute is included the link.

And if someone actually wants to buy it, they might be able to use it to find you.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17783365
From Carolyn E Wright's blog: Section 1202 of the U.S. Copyright Act makes it illegal for someone to remove the watermark from your photo so that it can disguise the infringement when used. The fines start at $2500 and go to $25,000 in addition to attorneys' fees and any damages for the infringement. And you don't have to have registered your photo in advance to recover under this statute.
The pertinent part of the statute is included the link.

And if someone actually wants to buy it, they might be able to use it to find you.

These are my reasons.

Heya,

I do it these days for one big reason: indexing.

Your email, any where you show an image on an internet connection, engines are indexing and collecting them. They're in places you'd never look. They're in ads in other countries. People use search engines as "stock images" for free. Maybe not where you are noticing, but in other areas. It happens all the time. I've found my own image in an add in a Chinese ad (I know it's mine because it was a freaking selfie with headphones, lol). There's nothing you can do to stop it really. But you can watermark it so it's either difficult, or not usable by some (I don't use the kind of watermarks that absolutely render an image hard to even look at though). But it's at least a small barrier in some ways. Really though, I do it because of this, and I know it can be removed with editing, but if someone is willing to do that, they take the risks (assuming they're under the laws you're under; not all are and there's nothing you can do in some countries). If it's posted on the web, in any way, even in an email that is not encrypted, it's indexed and out there.

Very best,