Digital watermarking specialist Digimarc Corp has launched an Internet search engine, MarcSpider, that searches for digitally watermarked images, which it claims that will help prevent copyright abuse on the Internet. Digital Watermarking uses coded information undetectable to a user, embedded within an audio/visual document, that can resist multiple transformations, either digital re-editing, or changes through media such as printing or scanning. The MarcSpider engine produces reports for subscribers which show each website that contains one of their watermarked images. Digimarc claim that MarcSpider will enable photographers, photography archives and corporations to track the distribution of their works across the Internet, and enable them to claim extra royalties. Portland Oregon Based Digimarc Corp’s PictureMarc digital watermarking software is available for image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop 4.0, Micrografx Webtricity 1.0 and Graphics Suite 2.0, and CorelDRAW 7 and Corel Photo-paint 7, enables images to communicate copyright and authorship details whenever they are used in applications. Digimarc’s MarcCenter electronic forum service costs individuals $100 per year, and includes use of the MarcSpider service.
