+ + = (me)

Why I advocate watermarking?
Back in 2004(ish) my entire site was ripped off, tubed and redistributed to the tagging community. I used to watermark small, because people would complain and I thought it was obscuring my artwork. But that didn't deter these people from removing my watermark and any trace of my actual signature. I found my images everywhere, IMVU, Cafepress, Photobucket, where people were making money off of my hard work and me not seeing one penny of it. In fact it ruined my online sales.

The reason for watermarking:
It's not only to protect your intellectual property, it's so that if a piece of your work that has been taken out of context from your gallery; you can be found. If your work is not marked there is no way for anyone to know who the artist is; because you know not everyone who takes your images without asking will put a link back to the artist. This is just the easiest way for anyone who is interested in your work to find you.

There will always be art/image thieves and you'll just have to deal with each one individually, here's what to do if you find yourself in that situation. (this applies not only to photobucket but for any site hosting your content without permission) [link]

If you use content/images/other peoples artwork without the owners permission it's image theft doesn't matter how much you sugar coat it.