What is Watermarking?
Watermarking Definition: Created to protect intellectual property by adding a visible or invisible mark to help prove authenticity or to track unauthorized copies.
Understanding Watermarking
Created to protect intellectual property by adding a visible or invisible mark to help prove authenticity or to track unauthorized copies. Watermarking is a technique that embeds identifying information within digital assets images documents audio video or other content in either visible or invisible form. Unlike steganography whose primary purpose is hidden communication watermarking focuses on proving ownership authenticity tracking leaked content or identifying unauthorized copies. Digital watermarking is addressed in standards like ISO/IEC 15938 and digital rights management frameworks. Organizations implement watermarking through specialized software embedding technologies content management systems and detection solutions. For example a media company might implement invisible digital watermarking in their confidential documents that embeds unique identifiers for each recipient allowing them to trace the source if documents are leaked publishing classification markings as visible watermarks and embedding tracking codes in training videos that identify the original recipient while ensuring the watermarks are resistant to removal through editing cropping or format conversion. Related terms Digital rights management DRM Copyright protection Intellectual property Document security Information leakage Content protection Steganography Fingerprinting Authentication.