The argument against watermarking:
The effectiveness of watermarks is exactly what people against them are arguing. Their point of view is two-fold: watermarks aren’t effectively protecting your products from being copied and they can seriously hurt your sales volume.
It is true that having a watermark on your images makes the job of the person that’s trying to steal your design a little bit harder, but it does not make it impossible. Anyone determined to build a business by stealing from others will use more than one strategy to succeed. If you know your way around photo editing software, like Photoshop, it’s actually not all that hard to get rid of a watermark and it’s also possible to hire someone for quite cheap that knows how to do it if you don’t.
Some will also go as far as purchasing your item and taking their own photographs of it (in the case of a physical product) or will purchase it once to have a version without the watermark to sell (if you’re selling digital files). I realize this sounds quite pessimistic, but I am simply stating the facts so that you know what you are really dealing with and can make your decision accordingly.
Anyone determined to build a business by stealing from others will use more than one strategy to succeed.
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BUSINESS TALK — watermarking