I find huge, plainly visible watermarks extremely annoying. Especially on pictures that aren't going to be sold. If it's something for sale, I understand obstructing an image for the sake of security. If half of it's missing, there's no way to reproduce it.

But if it's not going to be sold, you can easily HIDE a watermark in a picture so that it's completely invisible unless specifically looked for, which would easily resolve any theft. Anyway, most watermarks are easily enough removed, especially when an artist simply overlays a flat image overtop or underneath of a picture. Five minutes in Photoshop and it's gone. I've often been tempted to remove watermarks from images and send them to the artist saying I cleaned it up for them. XP Just to show how easy it still is to get rid of it and possibly steal the image. Anyway, in order to uphold a copyright, you have to take someone to court, in their country, and sue for damages. Which, if you're not making any profit off of something, is precisely $0 + court costs. Not to mention lost time and travel expenses or the possibility of losing the case. How many furries who watermark their images would actually go to the trouble of putting up a legal fight if someone actually stole their artwork and used it for profit?

I've shut down several art thieves and the people who are stupid enough to do something of that nature (especially when they're only doing it for the credit of having created the image) and it's pretty easy to spot them. What's really to be worried about is profitable copyright infringement and identity theft. Both of which, there's nothing you can really do to prevent other than NOT post your art, or totally mangling it to the point that it can't really be appreciated.

GOOD IDEA! Watermark your name/website/email etc into an unimportant part of your pictures, so that if someone randomly comes across it, they can find more of your lovely art. :) Sign your artwork in a corner (Lower right is standard, I believe.) Hide invisible watermarks in your image so that disputes may be easily settled. Hell, put in seven of 'em! Draw ANOTHER image for each picture and hide it in the background! Mix the watermark seamlessly into the image. Remember that artist who always hid a little Jack Russel Terrier in all of his pictures? It's a fun little interactive Where's Waldo for those who know your stuff!

BAD IDEA! Watermark the crap out of it. Put a bright red logo that's been stretched out so it looks like crap into the background (or worse, overtop of the image! *shudder*) at 20% opacity. Overlay any 'security watermark' overtop of an image in a visible fashion. Add your name into the picture for non-artistic purposes next to any title or logo which is smaller than the name.

Thoughts?