Only just seen this - I agree, basically, but if the artist you're talking of is the one I suspect, a point is being made which I can't address without breaking a confidence! Cryptic, I know, sorry: but there was a reason for it if that is indeed the artist concerned. I agree it disfigures work - and of course you don't get notices like this in an exhibition, where theoretically someone could take a photograph of it and then copy it; unlikely though that is. Online, however, it's very easy to steal someone's image and then present it as your own, and there are people who have done this. There's an issue about Chinese art-factories churning out paintings based on or simply nicked from artists outside of China, because the Chinese aren't signatories to the copyright convention - incredibly sad, given the treasury of superb artworks produced in China that some unscrupulous companies feel the need to steal from elsewhere. I don't put a copyright notice on my work when I post it, because I think it's fairly pointless - and also: no one has tried to copy me yet, so far as I know..... I feel quite aggrieved....

I agree totally with you Tony. If you are so concerned that someone might copy or download your work then reduce the pixels instead of plastering something across the image. Quite honestly, I sometimes feel it's a bit presumptuous that anyone might want to.