A *****
 

Before I upload any photos tonight I have to vent my spleen at a situation that has appeared on this site, and that is WATERMARKS.

My understanding is that we all put our photos up here for the pleasure of everybody and know and accept that people will upload photos that they like for their own pleasure.
I have no problem at all with this, I do it myself, but I do know that sometimes unscrupulous people will upload them to other sites and claim them, sometimes companies will use them and not even ask or pay. I have never had this happen despite uploading to aviation, shipping and trucking site, as well as flikr. If it does happen, I won't be happy, but it goes with the territory and so be it.
In the aviation field many photographers put on watermarks because they sell their slides. Well my answer to them is, this is not a free medium for you to sell your photos. If you are selling photos, well then pay for your own site.

For me, this is pleasure only and this why I get angry when I see photos completely disfigured by a watermark that makes the photo not worth jacksh*t.
The same people who do this can look at all our photos with no hinderance.

Now, I do not know what the policy is here because to my knowledge it has not happened before and I would appreciate some info on this matter.
Sorry if my strong views upset anybody, but I am not apologising for it, I do believe it is something that has to be discussed.

Now I've vented my spleen, I'll get down to uploading some more photos, WITHOUT ANY WATERMARKS.

Seconded.

There's nothing as annoying as looking at a interesting photo of a truck hauling a load with the watermark/copyright info splattered across the subject.