Protect your work...Mark and watermarks.

In your TGA's for clothing items - put your name date and copyright in the area that isn't seen or is excluded by the alpha channel. I JUST thought of it and although some of you may be chuckling at me for taking so long to think of it I doubt that the content thieves save the TGA's on their HardDrive and then re-upload. At the very least it would be a way for you to prove the work is yours once the TGA is opened in PSCS2 or above. I don't think that PNGs can save it this way but you could still put your logo in an area not used by the outfit (outside of the outfit grid).

As far as textures go - you could hide your logo or name somewhere in the image that isn't immediately noticeable and that should suffice.

I am going to start putting labels on everything I create - discreet and mostly hidden, but if the question ever arises whether or not it is my stuff - I will definitely be able to tell right off if something is stolen (esp if they do not modify the texture, which most content thieves do not). Of course that means that I will have to update all of my existing files with marks and labels - but that's what I get for not thinking things through.

I was also looking at Photoshop's ability to digitally watermark images. Apparently you have to register with these people: http://www.digimarc.com/comm/images.asp it ranges in price from $79 to $500 - which in the scope of what we do isn't that much. I am going to investigate whether Second Life maintains the watermark and if these people are able to track that information in-world (probably not).

Oh, they certainly do rip and re-upload. They'll even go to the trouble of making their own demo versions of ripped skins with different logos, and both skin and clothing textures have shown up with little alterations like coloring, sometimes even much larger alterations, in an attempt to obfuscate the origins. So, if you want to use a watermark you do want something that can't be easily cropped or blotted out.




You might be interested in this forum thread: /109/7f/214811/1.html In there is some discussion of other ways to get hard-to-remove watermarks applied.

Actually, that's precisely what a lot of them do. I won't get into how it's done, but a common way to steal textures is simply to rip them from video memory, at which point they are saved to the local hard drive, and then re-uploaded later. The question is whether or not a thief is savvy enough to remove your markings before doing the upload. Some are, some aren't.


Why CS2 or above? Why even Photoshop, for that matter? Any program that can open a TGA file correctly could be used.


They can. PNG supports both alpha transparency and simple transparency. If the image utilizes alpha transparency, then your method will work fine with PNG. I still recommend TGA since it lessens the margin for error, but if you know what you're doing, there's nothing limiting about PNG.


Sometimes that's possible; sometimes it's not, obviously. Either way, preserve your layered PSD. That way, if you do take someone to court, you can show how you made the image. If you've got evidence of the original creation process, and all the other guy has is a flat TGA, the preponderance is very much in your favor.


If your mark is in a transparent part of the image, the only way you'd be able to tell if it's also in the other guys version would be if you went ahead and ripped his texture to examine it. That's just as illegal as what you think he might have done in allegedly stealing it in the first place.

If you think someone has stolen your stuff, file a DMCA takedown notice. If the alleged offender then files a counter notice to have his stuff restored, your recourse at that point is to go to court. At that time, both sets of images will be fully examinable by both parties. Any ripping you do before that is a violation of the other guy's rights.

If the mark is in a non-transparent part, then there's no issue, since you'll be able to see it (or not) right in-world.

Either way, as I said before, keep your layered work archived, so you can show it if you ever need to.



That's an interesting question. I have no idea if the watermark would survive the conversion to JPEG2000 or not. And it would have to survive not once, but twice, if the image is ripped and then re-uploaded. Since, if I understand it correctly, the method of detecting the watermark involves subtracting the watermarked image from the original, it's hard to guess whether or not the inherent differences between a second generation lossy compressed image and the uncompressed original would be enough to wash out the differences of the watermark itself.

As for in-world tracking, I would doubt that's a realistic possibility. I'd be interested to hear what Digimark and/or the DWA has to say on the subject, though.

Watermarking comes in many forms depending upon the carrier file. There is strong visible watermarking, weak invisible watermarking, and strong invisible watermarking, and variations on the later 2 that merge with cryptography and steganography.

Compressed lossy J2C images work mainly with the strong visible and strong invisible watermarking. It takes very little effort to add a few strong visible watermarks into avatar textures. They can be added into the regions outside the UV boundary without affecting the final look on the avatar. There are even some places that visible watermarks can be added within the UV boundary that remain virtually invisible on an avatar. This is all well and good, this visible signature of sorts, but it dosn't really stop someone who is going to take the time to look for and erase what looks to be a watermark or signature. What else can be done to secure the origin of textures?

With skins and clothing, we can consider the entire texture a signature. The more unique, asymetrical, detailed, and infused with character the textures are, the harder it will be for a crook to make them look like someone elses work. In fact, this is how strong invisible watermarking works (within the details), and how it can survive lossy compression, some blurring, some noising, cropping, color shifting, and several iterations of all of the above. To go the extra mile people can add, if they wish, strong invisible full coverage watermarking into J2C files. This is a good approach for businesses that deal in prim textures that need totally invisible watermarking. I do this on my skins along with every other trick in the book to make them unique and traceable back to me, but the most effective thing I do is create a unique texture to begin with. It's very easy to take a few snapshots of avatar textures and do a difference comparison in Photoshop without having to resort to the same tactics that crooks use to rip them.

Chosen's point about keeping copies of layered originals is somthing we all should do. I'll also add that keeping a higher resolution copy is even better (significantly higher!!). I use 2048x2048.

Digimarc, the company that has partnered with Adobe, to include a filter in the Photoshop product uses a form of strong invisible watermarking that relies on reading a special set of data embedded in the carrier file and comparing that to a client's image and information registered on database. To get straight to the point, Digimarc's client accounts can be easily forged. Since their encryption technology is fixed and proprietary, not much can be done on the client's side! The price tag is also a big hassle. That is why I will never use Digimarc's watermarking service.

There actually is an easier way to avoid being copied. Doesn't require watermarking or anything else, simply make your design as you normally would, no extra steps. This protection comes at the end of the whole process, after it has been modeled, you simply don't charge much for your clothes, or whatever you are selling.

I personally make clothes so of course that was what i said, though this method will work on textures and skins and everythign else. You don't charge much for what you are selling. I for example do not charge more than 100L for a dress with a prim skirt, 100L for my latest design, an undercut corset, just the corset though it is not an easy thing to draw up. I am going to make a full outfit for sale with the corset though it will only be 150L for said outfit.

There is a reason this works. The people who copy your clothing designs are greedy and lazy, they want money and they want it yesterday, but they don't want to work for it so they copy your designs and then sell it as theirs for slightly less than you charge. If your only charging 100L for what they copy they would have to charge 90L and they will not do that because they want it yesterday, not next month.

These people in essence are gold farmers from any pay to play online game. They want to make a profit, the only way to make a profit is to get people to come to them. When youa re talking about gold farmers they want to raise the price of things to devalue gold or whatever the income is called in that game so that you need more to get anything and you will go to said gold farmers for a fast spike of income in game that costs you real money.

In SL they work in the opposite way, you have created the want or need in the item, but your prices are in many cases high, so they simply copy your design charge a little less and people go to them for the same thing at slightly less cost. Remove the cost and they will go elsewhere for easy money. Not to mention creating more sales for you, at least in theory.

This doesn't make textures any more secure from theft, nor do watermarks. Watermarks and unique textures make a stronger case in a dispute over origin, nothing more. Cheap textures do neither. They might just create the perception that they are low quality and market saturated simply from the price, even if they are not. Would you expect to find Waterford crystal at the dollar mart? If you did, wouldn't you be suspicious? Selling textures or anything else for less and less just perpetuates a downward spiral that ends close to L$0. It won't ever reach zero because the economy would collapse before it ever got that far. Tier and a few other things that are tied into US$ would become too expensive for most SL'ers without a SL income to supplement them.

Boy Namssor are you always that negative?

No I am not trying to make money off of a game, if I was I suppose I would be charging more for my clothes, or perhaps I would simply do what Barerose did and stay cheap just advertise and do a big huge impressive store.

What you fail to understand is you don't have to charge 600L for a pair of panties to make money. I mean good greif let's not get greedy here. If perhaps, people would use a teensy amount of brains here there wouldn't be this watermark your works cry and complaining about copiers. If someone copies your work and you find out, issue a complaint and make something else. Just because you got something copied does not mean you have to stop what you are doing and picket outside their store, you move on.

SL is a game, if people would stop seeing everything as being green and start worrying about how much fun they are having, then hey look it gets alot funner.

I get alot of fun in doing my clothes, if you don't have fun doing clothes or skins or whatever, why are you doing them?

Honestly, I am pretty darn sure most of you complaining about copiers and all of the copiers would leave SL two milliseconds after they stop buying and selling lindens for real money. Which is the problem. You want real money, get a job, you want fun play a game, SL is a game first and foremost. If you can't see that, I pity you.

Namssor wasn't being negative, just honest. For some people, SL is their sole source of income. Not being able to pay your rent or buy food isn't really a whole lot of fun. There is no "right way" to spend your time in SL. Some people create soley for fun and don't care about making money. Some people are here to try to make a living or second income doing something that they love. Some are here to try to make a living because they're disabled and their employment options are few. Theft is theft, whether it's a high priced item or low priced. Naturally thieves will gravitate towards what they perceive as giving them the best shot at making ill gotten gains, but there's nothing to say that they won't see a great low priced item that they think they can sell for a lot more than the creator is selling it for. The best protection is to develop a good reputation, strong word of mouth, and hope legitimate sales will offset losses from bootleggers. For most people, going to court to stop a theif is beyond their financial means, and the grid is simply too big for any creator to police themselves.

Ahh, you are a hobbyist. There's nothing wrong with that. I started out skinning the same way. I didn't join SL with the intention of starting a business either. That just happened. Now that I do have a business going I'm certainly not going to abandon it. I feel a certain sense of pride in accomplishment, resposibility towards all the customers that support my efforts, and responsibility in maintaining my own level of standards. Besides, it's too much FUN! The more successful the business is, the more time I get to spend doing it!

Watermarks prove origin. As we move entirely into a digital medium, originality becomes harder and harder to prove. So, I like watermarks. They're my friends. I use them whenever I post stuff on the Web, too.

Like Hell if I'm going to let some yahoo decide what I do and don't sell, or make! I'll go right on selling my stuff at the same price I set it out for in the first place. Picketing outside the crooks store will be the last thing I ever do. I have a large and mostly loyal customer base that is far more effective at spreading the word about crooks, and at finding them and letting me know.

Speaking of solutions - Maybe if enough seasoned SL'ers took it upon themselves to educate newborn first time accounts about the economic pitfalls of buying overly cheap ripoffs at all the multi-sim sized, "Wall"mart style, illegally ripped content mega-stores, we could give the REAL content creators back the credit they deserve!

You might as well call the Internet a game.

[sarcasm] Yeah, doing skins sucks! What I really look forward to is filing DMCA notices and pointing out my watermarks to Ginsu Linden and company, writing two page emails, signing off and faxing stuff to LL, and buying back all my ripped textures from the crook for spot comparisons. That's more fun than painting, any day! I just wish I could do more of them. Why do the Lindens have to take soooo long to get back to me!? [/sarcasm]

How's that for negative?

Again, let's just call the Internet a game.

I think I'll go back to skinning, now.

Namssor is my choice for Forum Hero of the day.

Mine too. Such grace in the face of hostility. Nicely done.

I'm not sure I could have faired so well in her place. I hope we can all learn something from her example. I'd like to think I have.

Ironically, you sound like a scammer.

Honestly I wasn't trying to start anything here - I just wanted newer designers and others who may not have known that to add in those little marks etc.. just makes it a little harder for people who clone the clothing textures to do so. I realize that if they want to steal they'll do it, it's kinda like locking your car doors - it won't stop all thieves just most of them.

Oh BTW - I am not doing this JUST to make money.. I love creating things and hearing what people say about them (ego boost), it's not just the money. I don't make a lot - just enough to cover gas and some groceries, so it is more of a hobby and fun for me. More often than not I give a lot of my items aways, if I see a new person in the store I will give them a lot of things just because it's fun. I sometimes call into Fashion Consolidated Cafe or Fashion Emergency and ask "Who wants a free "fill in item here" - that is what I call FUN! Pure joy is more like it. I love hearing how people get a lift from something so simple.

I also have donated my items to shows, the Relay for Life and other things that make a difference.

My beef with content thieves is that they make SL seem like it is full of dishonest people. It is a black mark that undermines any and all that creators do. It also makes the people in charge look suspect since they have basically written in the TOS that there is nothing that they can do other than "take down" the offenders texture - which is silly cause we all know that they have alts and can just set up shop somewhere else. I don't know what the answer is - I wish that there was a simple one. Until then I am going to do my personal best to let others know and be aware that all is not well in the land of second and most of us technical wizards are not happy about it. Protect your work, save the PSDs, put you mark on it (visible and invisible) and hope that the texture hounds pay dearly for the trouble they have wrought.

All I want is for SecondLife™ to be fun again.

Well said. It's sad when a virtual world with so much potential and creativity becomes known for its griefers, scam artists, and content theives.

Dear Friends

Im so sensible, like creator, with those all thiefs and copy ppl, and i would love like all of yours to have a robust method to avoid that ppl can copy the creations of other ppl, but looks like almost imposible at this moment. In other hand, this kind of protection, its onlyusable in case of any legal action you wanna start against the thief, or also to can demonstrate you was the original creator.

On friend of mine, tell me a method could e very usefull in that cases, and extreamly cheap and easy to implement. Copy all your content in a CD/DVD, with a document inside that list all the item. Write the Date in the CD or DVD and put it in an envelope and send to you by certified mail. When you recieved it, store in asecure place, thats a legal prove that you are the original creator, so ppl copy will do later than you for sure.

I hope this can be helpful for all of these worry about this right stuff.

For someone that knows what they are doing, watermarks don't do a darn thing to save you from texture or image theft.

Especially when you are talking about textures in SL.

That's a good point, Michael, but I think there is a lot to be said for simply making things more difficult. You'll never stop someone determined to copy your work who is willing and able to take the time to remove a watermark, but at least one can stop the casual thieves (you know: the "it's full perm, so I can steal and resell it, no matter what the creator says, lalalalalalalala" set)

I agree, Virrginia. In RL, the best deterrents for most theft are vigilance and a simple lock on your front door. They won't stop the professional crooks, but they'll discourage the lazy amateurs. In SL, they'll also discourage most of the thoughtless scofflaws. (I've been waiting for ages to use that word in a sentence.)

Dexter -- That advice about sending yourself a copy by Certified Mail has been around for a long time, but it really doesn't help much. All you really have afterwards is an envelope with a certified date on it. There's no way to prove what was IN the envelope, if you ever needed to use it in a lawsuit. Leaving the envelope sealed doesn't give you much more protection either. You really need a way to certify the date of the items in the envelope, not the envelope itself. For paper documents, you could get a Notary Public to date and stamp each page, but I don't see an easy way to do that with a digital document.

Thansk Rolig Loon.

Thanks for that information, perhasp the Noatry Public must be to update with the times and could certificta digital document too. In Other hand, im working in the video market, in RL. And we use a digital watermarking system for the Video. A french system called NexStamp is coming form the military technology and is undetectable but the inspector software. In that case this system can mark a video footage, with many codes, and yu can detect even if the movie is recorde with a video camera, and the video is passed by flip or distortion effecta. This watermarking system is on the digital domain of the image, and im sure must be something like that for static pictures. And thats could help.