Stolen Photo on Ebay

[Dakota]

A watermark wouldn't make that much difference if people really want the image and they can use something like Photoshop. Since you can zoom in to 1px it's pretty easy for anybody to remove it if they have the time or patience to do it.

An alternative would be to use a digital watermark which is a non-visible watermark that can only be read by a computer program. The copyright is embedded digitally within the image and would prove your ownership of it. However, at the end of the day proving ownership of the image and getting unauthorised use curtailed or royalties for the use of, are two different things.

Unfortunately if you put good/interesting images on the internet, you have to expect (if not accept) that people 'borrow' them. Which under normal circumstances is flattering, but if they are trying to make money then that's a whole different kettle of fish.