In both Netscape and Internet Explorer (IE), for example, all you have to do is right-click over a photograph or an inserted graphic image to get a popup menu that allows you to copy, print, e-mail, or save the image. In IE you don't even have to right-click -- all you have to do is move your cursor over a photograph and a tiny toolbar pops ups with save, e-mail, or print icons, in case you hadn't already thought about stealing it.

Almost all photographs and graphic images are proprietary material. The publishers of web browsers know this quite well. What I'm saying is, theft on the web is institutionalized and supported by major Web publishers.

None of this is big news, of course. We have lived with it for a long time. We all know that anything we put on our web pages is vulnerable to theft.

Recording artists have a huge music publishing industry guarding their rights because the industry has a financial interest in protecting their copyrights. Individual visual artists, photographers, writers, on-line businesses, and museums are not so lucky. We are victims of Internet theft every day, and no one is making a lot of noise about it. The collective dollar value, however, is incalculable.

In my own case, I publish several sites, both personal and commercial. I don't put anything on them that I can't bear to have stolen. On one site, I publish examples of my fiction, but I only post stories that have been so widely published that there is no risk in having them distributed over the Net. I often use photographs to make my pages more interesting and attractive, but I haven't used my best ones that I hope to sell or exhibit. That's a shame, because I have photographs I would love to show off.

Recently, though, I started a weblog that is a sort of photo journal, the principal attraction being some of my most interesting photos with text that tells the stories behind the photos. I wanted to put my best work on this blog but worried about theft. Since I am aware that digital imagery can be altered and enhanced in many different ways, I posted a notice about copyright at the top of the page, and invented a technology: I said that all photos are embedded with copyright information that is invisible to the naked eye, but that can be identified with special software that searches the web for the copyright mark. I knew the bluff wouldn't work completely, but hoped at least it would minimize theft. But it turns out that, once again, I reinvented the wheel. The technology in fact exists.

Digital watermarking software embeds copyright information into digital photo and graphics files. When decoded with special software, the watermark reveals things such as the copyright owner's name, address, terms of use, and copyright date. The software to search the Web for the watermark exists as well.

Needless to say, all the photos posted on my weblog now carry copyright watermarks. I didn't have to change one word of my invented copyright notice, although I did add the name of the watermark technology I use.

Some of the companies providing digital watermarking software are:

Alpha-Tec, which makes four different software packages for embedded copyright information on audio, video, still images, and 3D images.

Blue Spike's Giovanni software, which watermarks both image and audio files with cryptographic keys as well as the copyright information. The keys prove the authenticity of the watermark. Blue Spike claims that their watermarks survive compression schemes. The website includes a fascinating explanation of how the technology works, and how they protect against attempts to degrade their watermarks with compression and hacking.

Digimarc, which  licenses a variety of applications for watermarking audio, video, images, and documents. ImageBridge is their solution for digital images, with a companion application MarcSpider for finding and identifying locations of your watermarked images. Currently they are offering a special on these two applications, the most economical solution I could find for individuals. You get a one-year license of ImageBridge for $49, but you are limited to marking 99 images for the license period, and you must have one of the qualified photo applications to work with it. With MarcSpider included, the fee is $128 for one year.

Signum Technologies, which publishes two digital watermarking systems, SureSign and Veridata. Veridata is used principally by enterprises and law-enforcement agencies. SureSign is the choice for individual users, and is available as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. An evaluation copy can be downloaded at their website.

MediaSec, which offers multiple watermarking services, including internet tracking and searching for watermarked objects.

Except for the Digimarc special as noted, none of these solutions is cheap for individuals. But for professional photographers the investment may well be worth it.

I'd like to see publishers of the major browsers stop implicitly supporting theft and revise their products so that they don't copy photos and art. That won't stop theft, of course -- if you can see it, you can copy it. But at least the message that it's OK to steal will be removed.

Security Sentinel is written by contributing editor Toni McConnel. Toni will keep you up-to-date on recent issues about security, new virus alerts, discoveries of software and hardware vulnerabilities, and where to find further information and fixes.

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