I asked to add watermarking to the discussion but the organizers feel it is a peripheral issue. I also asked David if Digimarc could fill-in for Michael Ester in a panel at the pre-summit conference; I don't know if that's been done. Hopefully all the summiteers will have a chance to visit Digimarc's booth on Mon/Tue.

Watermarking is mentioned peripherally in

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 "III. Business Planning Framework
    3.Accommodate Educational Uses

      6.Involve Licensees in Maintaining terms

                    While technical means of protecting, and especially of marking, intellectual property should not be ignored, the mutual interests of universities and museums make institutional policies and practices on the part of the licensees the strongest possible security guarantors. Licensees should report security practices and policies."

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But watermarking can be more than protection; it is also marketing and institutional identification. Digimarc will release a product that marks each image with a unique locator to send the viewer back to a specific URL. In other words, I come across a digital image either on the Web, on a CD-ROM, or off-line somewhere. I see it has a ©copyright symbol attached to the filename. I read it through Photoshop,Corel Draw or any one of a multitude of viewers and I am directed to the owner's specific page where more documentation regarding that image, and licensing that image, appears.

Digimarc talking about a way to search the internet for unauthorized publication. This kind of technology should ease some of the fears that museums have about publishing thier images, albeit low-res, on the Web. I assume that they will continue to evole their products with the same foresight and also that they are joined by competition that will push the envelope even further.

Alan Newman
Art Institute of Chicago