Removing watermarks

[baughen]

Apologises if members think this should be added to the recent AI and framing industry topic.The following article was published in Scott Kelby's blog (https://scottkelby.com/) yesterday:

Do members think this is a positive or negative move as far as the framing and art industry is concerned?

[Justintime]

I can't see how copyright infringement can be a positive thing.

[prospero]

If you don't want your copyrighted images purloined, then don't put them on the web. Or put low-res versions up.

It's like leaving your car outside your house with the keys in and with a notice on saying "This is my car. It is a criminal act to take it away".

[Rainbow]

Their headline should more accurately be "Remove watermarks from other people's images for free"....

[Richard Photofusion]

A Google employee posted about using Photoshop content ware fill to remove watermarks. Shortly after, they were an ex-employee.

Copyright is the life blood of the creative industries (OK, so Disney and the other film/music companies took copyright extention to extremes). This is automating theft, disguised as Hmm altruism?

Should anyone be stupid enough to use this for anything even vaguely commercial, they'll discover that atleast in the UK and US (so most Berne Convention areas), there are enhanced penalties for willful copyright infringement (and removing the owner's copyright mark is pretty damn willful).

#madeinindia.

[Chhow]

We all know stories where people have lost their images, even copyrighted ones. And it's really sad. It seems to me that this application will just change its name, but unscrupulous people will use it

[JFeig]

Time will tell. There will be a time when a big owner of copyrighted images with find out that someone has removed the "watermark protection" from an image and publishes the modified image. Mr. big bucks copyright owner will squash this person/company, in India, into financial ruin via the court system.