Watermarks on photos are here to stay!

[go-bad-chicken]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Watermark-Removal-Policy-Enforcement-Update/ba-p/2780374...

Watermarks on photos are here to stay!

[ittybitnot]

Watermarks on photos are here to stay!

Would not go that far.....they just won't be "axed" in March with the applicable policy violatiions being awarded.  When they figure out how to "patrol" the site, expect it to come back.  JMHO

[llllady]

---

@ittybitnot wrote:

Watermarks on photos are here to stay!

Would not go that far.....they just won't be "axed" in March with the applicable policy violatiions being awarded.  When they figure out how to "patrol" the site, expect it to come back.  JMHO

---

I bet eBay has already figured out how to work this in their favor.  For those who choose not to remove them and if their items aren't seen, it will be Google's fault! 😉

[chrysylys]

---

11-30-2017 12:00:00 PM Last Edited 11-29-2017 05:24:32 PM

In September, as part of our Fall Seller Release, we announced that listings with watermarked images would be removed from eBay search results beginning on March 1, 2018.

We know that buyers want to see products clearly before they make a purchase, and watermarks create a cluttered experience not consistent with retail standard. Watermarked images are also a primary reason Google rejects eBay-funded Google Shopping placements, meaning less visibility for your listings and decreased conversion.

As a result, we encourage you to remove watermarks from listings in order to enhance your reach and velocity on eBay.

However, we have received significant feedback about our upcoming enforcement and for this and other business reasons have decided that we will not enforce the removal of watermarks in March 2018 as originally planned. We know this is a crucial time of year, and we want you to be able to focus completely on selling.

Thank you to those who have already removed watermarks. We know in many cases this has been a significant effort. Because of those efforts, your listings will more likely be included in Google Shopping search, your products will be featured in our product-based shopping experience, and will be considered for our deals and seasonal promotions. And, eBay will even more delight buyers with a world-class retail experience.

We appreciate your efforts and always value your feedback.

---

I told y'all the Evil G was behind the whole mess.

[ittybitnot]

I told y'all the Evil G was behind the whole mess.

Seriously, I doubt it.   If ebay wants to enforce this policy, they need to get a bot that scans for watermarks.  LOL...... It is NOT the motivation.  I sell on other sites....NO MPN, NO ISBN,  NO whatever, watermarks or not, and my items show on G. shopping within an hour. 

Blaming this on Google seems rather absurd. 

[go-bad-chicken]

"When they figure out how to "patrol" the site, expect it to come back."

You may be correct, but I suspect that there may be more to it, than just enforcement.

This is just speculation on my part.

But I think that someone at eBay might have determined that; by requiring sellers to remove watermark protections from their photos, in conjunction with eBay's new revised terms of service, which now gives eBay the right to use at their discretion photographs created by sellers for their product catalogs, could be running afowl with the current copyright laws here in the USA.

For the record I am completly ok with eBay using any of my photos for its product catalog.

BUT, THEY COME AS IS, with my watermark protections in place.

But if eBay wants me to provide potential poduct catalog photos, free of watermark protections  I can easily provide that service for them as well. I just have one simple requirement. Pay me.

I subscribe to the Harlan Ellison school of thought.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Very smart and more than likely accurate, go-bad-chicken. 

I think removing watermarks from copyrighted art, whether original or prints, photographs, posed a very difficult situation. To allow thieves also to copy coveted antique photographs with a single click bothered me greatly. 

I haven't used watermarks, but now I am going to start. Some things I have to sell are very desirable, rare, valuable, and deserve this extra step. 

As for ebay's catalog? Not my problem. 

[retrose1]

I have  loved Harlan and been a fan for years, he is a god.

I think what is happening is that either ebay has realized after over 2 years of trying to make it work, that the ONLY way the catalog will work is on new items less than 5 years old and they are giving it up .....OR..... ebay will punish the sellers that keep watermarks on their pics by including them so low in search results a buyer would need a bag hoe to dig them up.

Having watched ebay work for years now - my vote is punishment.

So, how many posters have invested hundreds of hours so far changing things to keep ebay happy and how do they feel now that they find out they didn't have to waste their time?

I am also seeing this like the free shipping that ebay worked so hard early on.  ebay wanted it so they could make the extra fees on the ship dcosts but too many sellers refused to do that - so after a year of laying groundwork, ebay went the punish route and cashed in with the ship fee gouge and suddenly free shipping wasn't important to ebay anymore.  Once ebay can cash in on something, it's going to happen.

[jeweloftheheart]

Spoke to eBay today. They said Google search is the one that does not want the watermark. They consider it graffiti. They will suppress listings that have one. Another excuse?

[funfinds122]

How come then that watermarks don't do the same on the other sites? And sales do happen regardless... just saying

[timzbiz]

Sounds like lawyers told them they can not do that.

[rolenboy01]

Sounds like it sucks to be a great photographer, I do the bare minimum good enough so I don't get a SNAD or return but not so good that eBay wants to use my picture for a stock picture.

[castlemagicmemories]

---

@go-bad-chicken wrote:

"When they figure out how to "patrol" the site, expect it to come back."

You may be correct, but I suspect that there may be more to it, than just enforcement.

This is just speculation on my part.

But I think that someone at eBay might have determined that; by requiring sellers to remove watermark protections from their photos, in conjunction with eBay's new revised terms of service, which now gives eBay the right to use at their discretion photographs created by sellers for their product catalogs, could be running afowl with the current copyright laws here in the USA.

For the record I am completly ok with eBay using any of my photos for its product catalog.

BUT, THEY COME AS IS, with my watermark protections in place.

But if eBay wants me to provide potential poduct catalog photos, free of watermark protections  I can easily provide that service for them as well. I just have one simple requirement. Pay me.

I subscribe to the Harlan Ellison school of thought.

---

That name rang a bell, seemingly connected to Star Trek, so I did an internet search.

He wrote "The City on the Edge of Forever",  classic Star Trek.

[go-bad-chicken]

"Spoke to eBay today. They said Google search is the one that does not want the watermark. They consider it graffiti. They will suppress listings that have one. Another excuse?"

From my personal observations of Google Shopping pages, over the past 3 months, I do beleive that eBay's statement is true.

I have no hard data to support this claim, but from regular observation it does appear that Google tends to place our watremarked listings much further down within the Google Shopping page results, when there is a lot of competion present for a particular product. But Google is not excluding those watermarked listings from its results. At least not yet that is. Furthermore when ther is not a lot of competion for a particular product, then watermarked photos do appear on the first page of results, and often times higher than non watermarked images.

I have run some expiriements in the past two months, and have created a few listings without watermarks. Those listings do tend to show up more on the first page of the Google Shopping page results. So watermarking photos does appear to handicap a seller's listing, when it comes to placement within Google Shopping page results. But once again I have no hard data to support this claim.

What I really want to know is:

Is Google detecting watermarks from some form of digital stamp within a photo's code, when it has been digitaly altered by photo editing software?

Or is itsome type of super smart AI VISUAL RECOGNITION software to detect the mark?

I am wondering this because a while back I came across an advertisement for custom made camera lens covers, that are clear, but that have your company's logo or whatever text that you desire written somehow engraved onto the interior of the clear lens cap cover.

So the clear camera lens cover cap esentialy allows the photographer to create marks on photos that produce the same visual results as a photo that has been digitaly watermarked by photo editing software, but without the digital watermark itself.

This could potentialy solve a lot of problems for sellers like myself who want to maintain a mark on their photos, while at the same time showing up higher in the Google Shopping search results.

Maybe someone who is more knowledgable about such things will stop by with an answer.