User:Pedro Sá Couto/TW/Users

THE PUBLIC

How did the project start

1. Interest on Libraries and the invisible characters
2. Research on Surveillance in Publishing
3. The appropriation of analogue watermarks
4. Re-appropriation of digital watermarks
5. Creating a tool for a need

THE TIMELINE

1. Interest on Libraries and the invisible characters

Tactical Watermarks, is motivated by all the invisible individuals behind alternative publishing platforms, from curators, the ones who host, upload and even download material. It is also comforting that users display daily acts of voluntary resistance amongst them, from researchers creating informal groups to share copyrighted material to users mirroring collections in attempts to extend their life span. My project starts focused on acknowledging the importance of informal communities of resistance and on the individuals that make this possible. Tactical Watermarks reflects on the social, political and cultural aspects behind the use of restrictive measures in publishing. It is not a finished project, and it doesn’t intend to be, it embraces that the possibilities of tactical watermarks will continue to reveal themselves through the extensive use of the tool.

2. Research on Surveillance in Publishing

With my creative response, I intended to create one more tactic to bypass surveillance in the publishing realm. Though, it does not try to be the foolproof answer to opening access to published material. It is reassuring to feel that a wide variety of infrastructures, from shadow libraries to online digital archives already exist as temporary solutions to the main problematic.

Researchers need to react against the organisations creating monopolies and closing access to published material. We need to build new online spaces where people can connect. Users need access to online forums where counterstrategies are widely available. We need to organise workshops and build communities to bypass the control of corporations only focused on the monetary outcome from research. It is important to continue sharing texts and opening access to our resources collectively. We need to mirror collections and produce new and unpredictable reactive actions against closed publishing streams. When it comes to opening access to paywalled material, a lot is yet to be done. Tactical Watermarks is a way to stimulate new reactive measures, embracing a positive discourse when it comes to subvert digital surveillance.

3. The appropriation of analogue watermarks

Analogue watermarks establish provenance to manufacturers of papers, paper mills and manuscripts. These are produced during the process of making a sheet of paper whilst the paper is still wet. Analogue watermarks are a result of changing the thickness of a specific part of the paper, creating a highlighted area and as a result, its shadow. After they appeared in 1282 across Europe, Africa and the Middle East their use contributed to increasing the desire for specific papers and was a critical factor in recognizing paper quality.

In the 90’s the interest in watermarks increased drastically. These started to be digital. Currently one can find them in various forms of copyrighted material. As most information and data are stored in digital formats and not in physical ones, providing legitimacy and proving authenticity is progressively representing a more urgent task (Shih, 2017).

Digital watermarks were appropriated by the publishing business. Watermarks are used to create a body of evidence on users, adding traces that relate to the subject more precisely with geolocation, IP addresses, MAC addresses, email addresses, etc. An excellent example of this phenomena is the enforcement by Verso Books publisher. Their books are sold in an online ebook store where they append a new page in the beginning of each file with the downloaders’ name and his or hers email address. It also watermarks the IP address of the downloader in the footer of the first page of every chapter.

The progression of watermarks. From their background, until their appropriation, as an asset to incite fear, self-awareness, and to remotely control and constrain user actions. It was essential for the development of my project to emphasize the current value of ancient watermarks. My researcher from the point of view, where I consider the early framework of watermarks necessary to resurface.

4. Re-appropriation of digital watermarks

I desire to demonstrate that what lies at the heart of watermarks use is the ability to portray crucial interrupted actions and moments in history, granting insights into hidden processes of fabrication, documented in the sheets of paper. And at the same time carrying clues to comprehend their artisans, the historical time frames and different imagery. I will then expand on the use of digital watermarks apart from what I recognize as their misappropriation, exploring that the current attitude towards digital watermarking is not the only valid one. I focused my research on how the discourse around these reinforcements of copyright can be flipped around. I will delve into the tactics that seem mainly negative and re-reappropriate them.

In Tactical Watermarks I actively make use of digital watermarks as a means to explore topics such as anonymity, paywalls, archives, and provenance. I describe ways of living within and displaying resistance against a culture of surveillance in publishing. It is relevant to understand and explore what it is living in a culture of constant tracking, rather than aiming to solve the many problems of surveillance.

My use of watermarks and more specifically, my creative response, has the primary objective of creating a positive discourse around the act of watermarking. This discourse will enable the creation of a top layer of information, able to embed traces of provenance in different texts. By provenance, I intend to express all the trails not used to surveil users but the ones able to trace historical importance to files and that facilitate precise documentation within an archive or library. Tactical Watermarks is not only a theoretical system, but I will also delve into how it can be deployed, comparing it to other projects or approaches that I have encountered, and reflect over their influence in my practice.I wanted to challenge centralised distribution channels and wondered on how the process of adding stains can be twisted and revived. Stains are what I will call user patches or marks that are difficult to remove and that do not play an active role in archives. While exploring the process of adding imprints, different uses arose: as a way to obscure previous ones, of commenting on the situation and encouraging behaviours, to create relations and communities, augmenting the sense of solidarity in archives, for digital enhancements, marks of quality, etc.

5. Creating a tool for a need

During my research and while using LibGen, I wanted to understand how moderators were dealing with watermarked titles and what was their take on this problem. Apparently, there is no restrictions whatsoever to what files are uploaded and if they have watermarks or not. I became part of the forum hosted by Library Genesis and there was a thread titled: "How to remove watermarks from PDFs?". The concerns were always similar — Users wanted their files de-watermarked but there wasn't an effective, open source tool to do so. Either software was proprietorial, which is ironic, or it wasn't effective.

I understood the need to create a tool that allows people to share watermarked PDFs in a safe way. And free. In Tactical Watermarks, I will open a space to de-watermark files, and append new anonymous watermarks with the technical and personal regards around sharing specific texts.

The platform is free and open source, All the scripts are available for download in XPUB's git repository so that users can not only use the platform but also clone the repos and use the scripts either locally or in a new instance of the platform if they want to.

CONNECTING TO LIBGEN

Printscreen from Library Genesis Forum — How to remove watermarks from PDFs?

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  The problem

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  Understanding the goal

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  The result

WATERMARKS THEY WANTED TO BE REMOVED

Printscreen from JSTOR PAPER

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  Watermark in Research Paper

THE SOLUTION

Printscreen from output

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  Watemarked Cover

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  Result

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  Watemarked Page

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  Result