Personally, I'm not all that worried about it. When it happens to me and I find out about it (and it has, and I have), I take steps to get the images removed from wherever they're being used improperly, and I've been known to give the offender an earful (well, an eyeful, I guess, since it's almost always in written form). On a couple of occasions, I've gotten people's accounts removed (not that it stops them; they just get an account elsewhere, but it inconvieniences them). Digimarc, by the way, now charges a license fee for ALL use, and the more you want to use it, the more it'll cost you. Also, it's quite easy to remove a Digimarc watermark. It doesn't even take a great deal of know-how to do it. I use a visible but subtle watermark with a distinctive and rather large signature. To remove it, the thief would have to work fairly dilligently and delicately with a clone tool, and most thieves aren't interested in doing too much work (else they'd make their own images). The sleazebags who steal images to make image tubes look for pictures with a plain or mostly plain background, and then they just cut out the main image, so if you make your watermark fall over parts of the main image or use a complex background, tubers will be discouraged and will go on to something easier. I'm absolutely aware that people can and DO take anything they can get their hands on. If I spent all my time worrying about it, I wouldn't have any energy or time to make anything new, and I refuse to let the wannabes and thieves rob me of my time and energy that way. Like I said, when and if I learn of it, I make the appropriate complaints to the appropriate sources, and I do a followup and then I pretty much go on to do other things. I understand people being pissed off (I know it pisses me off!), but I think of it more as being annoyed with mosquitoes or fleas in the summertime. I'm not going to let it ruin my enjoyment of the outdoors, although I do take steps to repel and/or stop the pests. bonni

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch." - Bette Davis