Does anyone know if it is possible yet to add copyright or digital security markings to free vector files, to prevent people from selling them for profit as their own work.

Under File > Document Metadata you can set various information including the file licence

prkos wrote:Under File > Document Metadata you can set various information including the file licence

Yes, but that data is only saved when saving as "Inkscape SVG", not when saving as "Plain SVG".

Besides, anyone can change that information without any difficulties, so it won't really function as "digital security marking".

An SVG file is just a text file, so there's no way to "lock" it so that it can't be edited or used in whatever way someone wants. Anything you'd try to add, like a watermark for example, can just be removed. You can put license and copyright info in it, but it's up to the user to respect or ignore that.

I agree with Kelan that I don't think it would be possible. Even if you were to encrypt some sig data into the file, it's still a plain text file so even if they can't decrypt the info, they can always remove it.

Like the guys say, there isn't really anything you can do, if you distribute it as vector, people will be able to strip drm out if they really want to. Basically if it's a format that can be opened to view then someone will find a way to get the data out.

Does anyone know if digital security is an issue that is being investigated, there's no point asking could it be something for the future because no one can know that for sure.

First and foremost... DRM does not work. Or to be more precisely: it cannot work.

Cryptography just doesn't work like that. It isn't witchcraft. It won't help if the attacker and receiver are one and the same person. If someone can access the data... he can, well, access it (gasp!).

SVG will never support any kind of DRM.

The only way digital security like this can "work" is by controlling every point of the process. For example, Flash files are "secure" in this way, because only Adobe makes Flash file editing tools, and only Adobe makes Flash file viewers. The advantage to Flash authors is that Adobe can make it very difficult to decontruct Flash files, so the stuff in them can't be copied out. The disadvantage is that you have to go through Adobe for everything; there are no other options.

SVG is an open standard, meant to be interoperable with any software that implements the standard. Therefore, any type of digital security you could add would be easily removed by any other software capable of editing. In SVG's case, it's even harder, because SVG is a simple text file format, that can be edited using even Notepad.

>The only way digital security like this can "work" is by controlling every point of the process.

You can only make it somewhat effective with custom hardware, but even then it can be broken (e.g. current consoles).

>For example, Flash files are "secure" in this way, because only Adobe makes Flash file editing tools [...]

No.

>[...] and only Adobe makes Flash file viewers.

Also not true.

>The advantage to Flash authors is that Adobe can make it very difficult to decontruct Flash files, so the stuff in them can't be copied out.

Everything about Flash is documented (by Adobe). Resources can be extracted and the code can be decompiled. (With the help of Adobe's docs I was able to write some SWF post-processing tools for example.)

There is some protection flag, which prevents you from importing that SWF into the authoring tool. However, that flag can be easily removed.

Early on I was thinking about adding a closed copyright to my webcomic when a developer friend reminded me that:

* Getting noticed is a hard problem
* Getting linked to is even harder
* Someone stealing your work is like getting noticed (it's exposure and recognition)
* It's not worth trying to protect the work, instead have fun doing it (which helps you to do it better)

For my stuff, I chose a CC style license as it lets others remix my stuff for fun, and gives me a venue for handling people who try to rip me off.

And in terms of selling SVG (or any vector artwork), a copyright notice is enough to protect it (most sites do not protect their for-sale vectors, just the preview images). On proof of infringement, the party in question must pay for use and/or take down the images. For example, one of my clients ran into this problem caused by a previous designer using unlicensed fonts (to the tune of many thousands of $). Be kind, and ignore the few people who may want to rip you off (they're unlikely to ever pay anyway).

If you really want to protect your work, your best bet is to save it as a PDF. I think you'll need to buy Acrobat to be able to password protect your file. This will allow others to view the file, but can prevent editing and even printing.

If you're selling your files, any misuse would be dealt with by your customer, woudln't it?
if you want to put them on your website for sale, just make low resolution png versions.

if you don't sell your files, why not put them under a license that allows people to make derivative works and copy it?
besides, if anyone would misuse your files commercially, just call them up and ask for loads of money, otherwise sue. (i'm saying this as a whole hearted copyright opponent you understand)

a good way to find out if anybody uses your work illegitimately is TinEye , it searches for images on the web not based on metadata our other information on a page, but based on the image itself. (now i feel bad, off to the pirate bay)