OBAMA SPEAKS AGAINST WATERMARKING Photo credit: unkown, but would it matter anyways?

"No image should be subjected to such defacement. Watermarking goes beyond vandalism. It is a form of torture to unsuspecting images and should be thought of as such." says President Barack Obama in a recent press conference.

Watermarking tends to be performed by one of these three hostile groups: Photogs Individual photographers will often watermark their images to prevent others from using them. Photo pimps Corbis, Getty Images, and iStockphoto are among the biggest and most-recognized watermarking organizations. As middlemen they don't want people using images for free. Image Hijackers Thousands of small-time site owners take someone else's image, then stamp their logo or domain on it. They effectively take credit for something that isn't even theirs.. Image threat level: low Image threat level: medium-high Image threat level: high

Watermarking is not limited to just images. “We are now seeing Watermark violations spread to video as well” says Hathaway. "Hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos have watermarks, many of which are not the original property of the watermarker." Even YouTube itself violates videos as it uses Flash to watermark the beginning of every embedded video. YouTube adds the video title, star rating, play button and their logo to videos that user or partners uploaded. Rep. Congressman Paul Broun (R-Ga.) hopes to use the focus on watermarking to spread his own agenda. "Watermarks are the mark of the beast. I want to see them removed from images and I want to see tattoos incorporated into the anti-watermarking bill as well." Controlling watermarking isn't just a problem in the U.S. World leaders have agreed to use military force to rid the world of watermarking--some have even threatened to cut off water supplies to countries that tolerate the harshest watermarking techniques. "If you deprive our citizens of clean images, we will deprive you of the water that is necessary for both watermarking and sustaining your own life" states French President and known consumer of Perrier, Nicolas Sarkozy.