Protection against scraping and reproduction

Discuss and share Pixelmator Pro resources such as templates, mockups, and tutorials.
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2023-03-24 17:34:46

Hi everyone,

First post here since I hope that there might be a way to use the software we commonly use regarding a reality that is fairly disturbing. I warn that the topic is a controversial one.

The goal: Finding defensive measures to defeat the "training" of algorithms that are behind "AI art".

Background: Some organizations have set up systems to scrape the Web for art, to build datasets used to "train" algorithms to produce "AI art". Sometimes without artist consent. People have gained access to tools that respond to text prompts to offer works within seconds. The logic of such systems is fairly easy to understand. The algorithms need data to learn how to build images because software can't just produce art from scratch. Which means that inevitably, artists' works, be it their characters or styles, will be reproduced one way or another. I've recently viewed a pretty solid rendition of Wonder Woman as "AI art".

Some of us want to avoid that. I don't claim to be a famous creator or anything but there has been a barrier to reproducing my stuff. It takes some hours of work. The idea of a simple text prompt eventually achieving such reproduction lowers the barrier to a few keystrokes and perhaps a little practice. It's not possible yet, but there appears to be demand for it. I've already read Discord and Twitter posts from people who say "I'm trying to emulate an artist's style or a specific picture but it's not working." Something that will surely change over time, as the technology expands its reach far beyond the most famous works.

A solution has been made public and it's called Glaze - it adds noise to foil attempts at integrating designs and styles to datasets. Given that creators are already talking about it, surely some people involved in AI will find a way to get around Glaze.

The question: I'm thinking that a lesser known solution such as editing within Pixelmator Pro might be more niche and therefore more effective. Are there techniques to add info to a picture to make it harder to do just anything with it? Is adding a watermark enough?

What do you think?
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2023-03-27 21:14:14

Your/Our work is copyrighted in the U.S. as we make it and use/publish it. The best protection I can think of is to document and date your work. You could go to the trouble of registering your work with the Federal Copyright Office (Its been many years since I did that - don't remember the name of the department exactly.) A watermark doesn't hurt but is easily circumvented. The problem really is about finding your work in unauthorized use; the Internet is massive. Best of luck.

I'm trying to think of the name of the process for embedding text/messages in an image, but I think the process of copying it for unauthorized reuse would corrupt it. Ah yes, steganography