We are also working and wanting to put custom watermarking on our images, so that we prevent unauthorized reuse of our images.

MM: Is that visible watermarks? Or invisible watermarks?

BG: They are developing a visible ghosted watermark.

MM: Sure. Have you been identifying particular vendors for that? Is it something that you also want to have as a service, or specifically tracking unauthorized uses of images once they leave your website or firewall?

BG: I haven’t thought about it and I haven’t been told that we could track our images after they’ve left the system. At this point, I do not really have a desire to track them. If they were downloading something that was expired, or they didn’t have the rights to the high-res and used the low-res, then this watermark would show up that would be the indicator that they violated the use. That should make them feel bad enough for now.

MM: Kind of a time-sensitive watermarking device that would message or indicate that this image is now expired. In terms of proper use.

BG: Yes. And if PR or somebody put it up on e-Entertainment’s website and there was a ghosted little mark on it, I think that would be a big red flag. I haven’t been told that we could track our images after they’ve left the system. I don’t know if our DAM system has that built in yet.

MM: None of the DAM systems have that built in. Usually it’s an add-on or a bolt-on type of service. For example, a company up in Oregon called DigiMarc offers something like that.

There are other firms—like Cyveillance, that kind of track brand images as a function of a Google-like spider that crawls through all of the websites and blogs and forums and looks for your stuff.

BG: That’s really interesting. I’d possibly be interested in looking at that. I’m not sure how much time we have to be the police of it.