[okfn-discuss] Annotating Open Images with licence and authorship to prevent copyfraud

[Rob Myers]

On 22/08/13 10:08 AM, Jonas Öberg wrote:
> Now, stamping or watermarking
> has its own problems: it gets distorted when scaling, for instance.
> This doesn't mean that it shouldn't be used when possible,

Watermarks and metadata are both double-edged swords.

Watermarks keep attribution but detract aesthetically and
informationally from the image.

I don't think they should be used except on marketing materials or
commercial samples.

> The work that I do at the Shuttleworth Foundation is in Commons
> Machinery, an initiative to delve deeper into the metadata field, to
> push for (reasonable) retention of metadata,

Metadata is useful for promotion and study but it can also be harmful,
leaking personal information.

Retaining it is not an unalloyed good.

That said, where the metadata is *licensing* metadata, that's probably
more open and shut, and your project looks excellent. :-)

- Rob.