[Flitterbug]

I was just wondering why people watermark pictures. I mean, I understand the concept if the picture is one that was taken personally by whomever sets the watermark... but to place your name or the name of your site over a scanned image or a picture that you personally do not own the rights to...

Why do people do that?

[MrsJemimaMistoffelees]

Because they are greedy and don't want you to use the pictures on your site or add it to your personal collection J/K!

I don't mind if the watermark was down in the corner, but when it's touching the face or in the way of what you want to see it's annoying.

But I agree with you about...

[Belle]

I have watermarked all my pictures after someone copied all the pictures from my site, burned them onto CD and was selling the CDs on Ebay! I had been using a more subtle mark so I knew for sure they were my scans, but since then I've put "Belle's Domain" onto every picture. But only in the corner where it's discreet! A subtle watermark can be very handy - I've got loads of pictures I've saved from websites (don't worry, personal reference only!) but most of them don't have the name of the website they're from. My theory is that any of my pics that get saved and passed around will still be tracable back to my site. Putting a big "(C) JENNY!!!" across the faces of the subject doesn't do that. (sorry to all the Jennys out there!)

Sticking a great big label across the centre of the picture makes having the picture online at all pointless, since it obscures the image! why bother having a picture if you can't see it? On the same line, why do people put up pictures so small, 200, 300 pixels? So small you can't make out the faces, can't see who the picture is of... why bother at all?

[enkeli-kitten]

I think legally all Cats photos belong to RUG anyway, don't they? Except fan-costumes and things. When I first made my site I used to put a little mark on them in the corner, but it took too long so I stopped, and then I realised that I didn't actually have any right to put my name on them!! I have a sharing policy =^-^= All professional and stuff made by me on my site, anyone can use.

[tmg]

I don't have any CATS pics online and I wouldn't watermark them if I did since they aren't mine (at least not with any type of copyright), but I do have some of my photography online. With those I do have a copyright watermark. I try to place it where it can't be cropped out w/o ruining the photo but also where it doesn't interfere with the photo too much. That way people can still see the photo, but they can't try to claim it as their own. I also don't post anything bigger than 600 pixels wide/high so they can't be printed out at a decent quality.

[Moongewl]

I visit a website for an RPG, and the site has maps of places in the game that were compiled through the work of many people. Although they don't own the game or the images used to create the map, they put their enormous-but-mostly-transparent watermark on the maps so no one else can copy all the maps, put them on their own website, and take credit for the well-done maps.
With pictures, it's sort of the same thing. Maybe a fan didn't necessarily take all the pictures, but he or she collected them all, and that takes time and work. If someone took a bunch of those pictures he or she she'd collected and put them on their own website and then started saying "All pictures are the property of ShadowNightFlower" or whatever, the original collector would naturally feel a bit cheated.
I know that it does make it troublesome when you want to make some sort of graphic with a picture and there's a big "XYZA'S LAIR" right across the face, but watermarks do make sense in some cases. If it's that sort of problem that prompted this frustration, the person who got the picture likely still has a copy of the picture without the watermark, and might let you use it if you asked. If it's just frustration because looking at a picture with a watermark is annoying, well, I sympathise.
(I need to stop making incredibly long posts.)