the superimposed images overlapping in position from image to image they can be removed relatively easily removal is done based on a comparison from image to image of superimposed areas e g watermarked areas to corresponding non superimposed areas with the present invention such removal techniques are thwarted because non watermarked areas of an image are not available for comparison in one embodiment of the present invention per pixel color resolution of the output image can be limited to a specified amount e g eight bits per color channel similarly in one embodiment of the present invention the size of the output image can be limited to a specified amount e g 1024 times 1024 pixels or 2048 times 2048 pixels the limitations can help prevent removal of the watermarks of the present invention for example if very high resolution e g 16 000 by 16 000 pixels images are used a user could potentially remove a watermark by blurring the image and then filtering it down from the very high resolution to a lower resolution e g 1024 times 1024 pixels by not permitting such high resolution images to be created such filtering can be prevented in step 510 the applied digital watermark is transformed transforming the digital watermark is defined as scaling rotating translating and or skewing the digital watermark those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that transforming the digital watermark can also encompass other visible operations which can be performed on an image transforming can also be varied with each application of the digital watermark for example the digital watermark can be rotated and applied at a different angle with each application of the digital watermark in one embodiment of the present invention the digital watermark can be applied.