How to Check Images for Fingerprints/Watermerk

[shoppc]

Question : What happens if you run a small web design service and a customer wants you to look after their existing website or revamp it a bit. Setting aside the issue of responsibility for content etc, you want to provide a good service, but the customer cant provide proof of an images source and does not want to replace all images.  How do you check if the images they are using are their own, licensed etc.  Ideally, is there a tool that can be used to check for watermarks or fingerprints on an image?  If so can someone point me in the right direction?

[SoylentGreen]

Some image editing applications remove digital watermarks from images.  So, if the image in question has been edited, there's no guarantee that an original watermark remains, or that it remains unmodified.  Furthermore, stock image/art companies do not necessarily bother to include watermarks in their images, or in all of their images.  It's not required to do so in order to show copyright ownership.  You may be better off to have the web site owner sign a release stating that you are not responsible for pre-existing content.  Then, print out each web page and have the person in charge initial each one.

I'm not an attorney, but those are my thoughts.

S.

[Oscar Michelen]

To my knowledge, there is no way to tell that a watermark or any other content management information (CMI) has been removed form an image.  So once its done, theimage is clean and cannot be traced back to its orignal source. That's the whole source of the problem with this issue. A web developer would definitely strengthen its position against its customer by having them sign a release as described by SG. The problem is that the end user will likely say "Hey wait a minute, what do I know from digital images? I am relying on you as an expert to keep me out of trouble from my website."  So you may get some pushback and defiance from your customers who are paying  your fee to set up their website.