We have many customers sign up for Digimarc for Images and not realize they can control what information is displayed when their unique digital watermark is read from their images. Also, many don't know that readers of their images can be directly linked to a website. All of these options are available to every Digimarc for Images customer, and can be configured within your account management system. 

Yours truly recently did a video walk-through on this topic. And check this out: we lost our microphone lapel clip right before shooting began, but "cleverly" improvised. I thought the quick fix was a nice touch by our producer, and we even show a close-up at the end for laughs. But don't worry, the Digimarc Actors Union has demanded a new mic clip for all future shoots.

I've mentioned Plagiarism Today previously as a good source for copyright issues. In fact Digimarc hosted a webcast with Jonathan Bailey who writes at Plagiarism Today where he covered a lot of basics about copyright, it's still available if you missed it.

I've also mentioned I prefer an alternative approach to US copyright know as Creative Commons which I think fits contemporary society and internet usage more realistically.

THEN, I heard about a movie being given away, apparently to avoid copyrights and royalties due to the music sound track. Sita Sings the Blues appears to be turning a blind eye to copyright laws, but it's not quite that simple... The creator of the movie, Nina Paley, is an Artist in Residence of http://questioncopyright.org/, which puts forth some interesting ideas about copyright and the way it can restrict access to copyrighted materials and why we should think about changing the system. Sita Sings the Blues was released with only a Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike License to help make the case that the movie is "not for profit" and maybe not subject to copyright infringement.

It's always interesting to try and understand alternative views, and this one is well beyond what I currently understand about copyright. I’m going to have read through and see how I feel about Nina Paley's approach.

As for Sita Sings the Blues; love the style, it's cute, but not really my cup of tea.

I wanted to post a quick blog to let everyone know that Adobe is hosting a launch event for Photoshop CS5 on Monday, April 12th. The event will cover the top 5 new features included with CS5. You can register for the launch event here.

For those of you upgrading to or purchasing CS5, the Digimarc for Images plug-in built into the new release will not need to be updated. Photoshop CS5 already has the latest plug-in, featuring our new "Chroma" watermarking technology (which you may have seen yours truly talk about).

 

I've found that the topic of copyright makes me squirm. There are so many unanswered questions. If you feel the same way, I encourage you to take the time to view the recent Digimarc-sponsored webcast, with guest speaker Jonathan Bailey, from Plagiarism Today.

The title is "Copyright Basics for Creative Professionals, Media Companies and Content Archives" and the topics covered include:

• Who should be interested in copyright   
• What a copyright protects   
• Where to register your copyright   
• The dangers of posting work online   
• Why you should follow good licensing practices   
• How you should respond to infringers  

To view the webcast, please click here.

We have a great solution for the museums and archives market. I'm very excited to attend my first trade event entirely focused on this very interesting segment of image owners: Museums and the Web in Denver, Colorado.

I'll be there Thursday, April 15th through Friday, the 16th. Let me know if you'd like to get together and talk about Digimarc for Images and how we could help your business. Our partner, ImageSpan, will also be there talking about their image licensing platform. We'll both have booths in the exhibit hall, so stop by and say hello!