AOL web troubles.. New AOL speedup seems to be a slowdown

Fri Jan 30 19:20:00 UTC 2004

At 09:43 PM 1/29/2004, "Brian Bruns" <bruns at 2mbit.com> wrote:
>Properly implemented watermarking won't be affected by the recompression.  It
>may not be as clear to the program as it would be if it was in its old format,
>but its still legible.

That's *visible* watermarking, not invisible *digital* watermarking which 
is hidden in the image file and marks the image as the property of the 
copyright owner.  If AOL's recompression technique is stripping out the 
digital watermark (can anyone here verify this?), then:

AOL is copying and redistributing the image in a new format *without the 
permission of the copyright holder* in a way that A) makes AOL money and B) 
removes protections that the copyright holder had placed on the image to 
help keep third parties from reproducing the image without permission.

and in doing so:

IMHO they are infringing on the copyright of those who have placed the 
digital watermark in the image.

jc