To watermark or not to watermark...

[SRD Art]

A recent post response to a rendering thread...

"...these are beautiful. Id like to suggest though that you add a watermark to what you place on a board for renderings and stuff. I saw a car this year at a large show that shall not be named that 90% of EVERYTHING was identical to what an innovative company had designed- right down to spoliers and 'hard to find ' parts that they made. The only thing different was the color. And I know the original design was plastered all over the internet before it was finished and Im sure some backwoods company thought it was cool to steal the desgns- instead of paying for them like shops SHOULD be doing. YOU renderers (Is that a word?LOL) are worth your weight in gold to see the builders vision- and people shouldnt forget that!

DAMN shame.
__________________
Lenny Schaeffer
Chop-Shop Customs
Woburn MA"


First off, Thanks Lenny! This is a topic I saw on another art based forum and a couple guys have asked me about it as well. We pretty openly post here, and anticipate that everyone here respects our ownership of the art and designs. But, there's always somebody that doesn't. I designed a diner last year and someone later involved with the project tried to steal the design rights claiming he designed it so he could go off and franchise it. The owner spent a bunch of money and we both spent a bunch of time with laywers to show that we owned the designs and when the other guy was served court papers he backed down and settled out of court agreeing to go away and never associate himself with anything to do with the project. What a waste and pain it was because of someone dishonest.

We're going to ramp up the monthly art show next month, so should we start putting water marks on our work? I haven't because I didn't want to be the oddball and I don't mind if someone here uses my art as a desktop or prints it and hangs a copy in their work cubicle, but if I ever see my art getting used for commercial purposes I'll come unglued. What do you all think?