Miss July is using protection.
In its latest bid to fight piracy, Playboy announced Monday that it is invisibly embedding "digital watermarks" into its online photos. Not only will the technology alert pirates that they're fiddling with copyrighted material, but it will track use of the images on the Web and alert Playboy to the possible need for litigation.
"Any magazine as popular as Playboy is going to find illegal use of its images," said Rebecca Theim, a spokeswoman for the publication. "We aggressively monitor the Web to stop this."
While it's amusing to think that Playboy pays people to spend all day surfing porn sites, the watermark technology should make monitoring the Web a good deal easier. Now, instead of guys scouting around Persian Kitty for errant Playmates, automated search programs can hunt Web-wide for specific watermarks.
At the same time, whenever a pirate attempts to make use of an image, a window will open up letting the person know that the picture is copyrighted, and providing contact information to obtain proper permission for reproduction. The idea is that if this information is made clear, pirates won't be able to later say they had no idea the material was copyrighted.
This is important, because the watermarks as such won't stop anyone from swiping Playboy's photos. "This is not a copy-prevention system," said J. Scott Carr, director of business development for Digimarc, creator of the watermark technology. "This is something so there's just no excuse for not getting permission. It gives you the opportunity to be honest."
And given such an opportunity, Carr believes, most people will do the right thing. "We think 80 to 90 percent of people out there have a desire to be honest," he said. "They just don't know where the image came from."
While this is debatable, what seems clear is that digital watermarking gives Playboy a leg up, as it were, in bringing copyright scofflaws to court. It's unlikely the company would devote resources to going after small fry using a Playmate or two on their Web sites. But if a site reproduced hundreds of centerfolds, say, Playboy would be in a strong position to seek legal redress.
In April, the magazine filed suit against San Diego-based Five Senses Productions for attempting to sell its copyrighted images. To stop such activities even faster, Playboy is paying Portland, Oregon-based Digimarc as much as US$5,000 a year to track unauthorized appearances of its watermarks, and to alert the magazine in the event of especially egregious uses.
Carr said that privately held Digimarc has "several thousand" clients, and is now negotiating with other major publishing concerns. "Playboy is an example of a publishing company that is interested in protecting visual assets on the Web," he observed, adding that other such companies might include Time Warner and Bill Gates' Corbis photo archive.
Digital watermarking is catching on with major libraries as well. IBM announced Monday that it will apply its own watermarking technology to images held by the Library of Congress, Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and Russia's Hermitage Museum.
"It's important," said Playboy's Theim. "You don't need a printing press to reproduce copyrighted images on the Web. We have to protect our standard of quality."
