It's behind the third spark plug! :)

lol........ Good one.

Well i got a reply back from Brian @ McNeels and apparantly there is a Watermark feature in the open 3DM format

>> There are two command you could look at... 'ApplyWatermark' and 'FindWatermark' but they're not a guarantee that someone won't distribute your file.<<

@ Michael - Is there any way you can implement this feature within MoI ?

I had no idea it was there already!

Martin Spencer-Ford

Hi Martin,

> @ Michael - Is there any way you can implement this feature within MoI ?

Not that I know of currently - there does not seem to be any mention of watermarking features in the OpenNURBS library itself, so that must be something that's not directly a part of the library.

If you can find any documentation for how the watermarking process actually functions, then it could be possible for me to do it as well, but I suspect that they purposely do not want to document it.

But if you like you can ask them if there is any documentation for how other applications can apply or retrieve the watermarks.

- Michael

It apears to be a command in R5 ... http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/applywatermark.htm explains the process but does not provide any API library structure, and the same applies for their wiki http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/rhinov5status_watermarks, I have sent an e-mail requesting more information but will wait n see what comes back. I have a feeling that we may well find that this is just something unique to R5 and for obvious reasons would not be made public through their development kit as it would kind of compromise things i would think.

As always thanks for the speedy reply

Martin Spencer-Ford

Just out of curiosity, did a few google and google scholar searches for watermarking nurbs, opennurbs, and rhino.

From: http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/applywatermark.htm
"Disclaimer
Robert McNeel & Associates provides the watermarking tools "as is," without express or implied warranty. All implied warranties of fitness for any particular purpose and of merchantability are hereby disclaimed.
Robert McNeel & Associates will not disclose any more details about watermarking."


http://www-artemis.it-sudparis.eu/Publications/library/Mitrea-WSEAS-TransComm2004.pdf

http://asp.eurasipjournals.com/content/pdf/1687-6180-2004-681489.pdf

http://asp.eurasipjournals.com/content/pdf/1687-6180-2011-216783.pdf

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167839608001222 ($19.95)

-Brian

Nice finds bemfarmer - They are some seriously heavy reading for me, but i will give them a go when i get more time

Martin Spencer-Ford

News from McNeels ....

<< Mixed news. The command was only partially implemented and the current iteration of it in V5 is broken. Based on the low number of requests for it, we decided to push off further development to V6. So, we don't have anything currently that works. Sorry for the confusion.>>

Well now that's a bummer ... v5 was something like 4yrs in dev time so I better not be holding my breath on this feature any time soon :(

Martin Spencer-Ford

Could "watermarking" qualify as encryption and be subject to various laws?

What recourse would there be for misuse of another parties models?

Hi bemfarmer - Watermarking is just pretty much a stamp of ownership. Obviously there could be problems with people taking someone else's creation and claiming it as their own and, if the original engineer/artist did not use a watermark then he would have a pretty hard time proving ownership, especially if the thief (for want of a better word) does then apply a watermark. Once a watermark has been applied the copyright protection laws come into effect where the materials concerned would be either belonging to a company or an individual and would remain so for something like 70 years, so if anyone profited from that work without consent then they are going to be in a heap of trouble as large as the originator wants to make it

Martin Spencer-Ford

I use brail, it is just a series of bumps, placed somewhere on the model, where it becomes part of the model itself. Maybe this will interest some of you. I got the ideal from some of my customers who are blind.