watermark
n.a mark or pattern that appears on a digital image or document to show that it is a copy. It is often used to protect the original work from being stolen.
n.a visible or invisible mark or pattern embedded in a digital file to identify its source or ownership. Often used in the context of copyright protection or to indicate that a file has been altered.
“The photo has a small watermark in the corner.”
“The photographer added a transparent watermark to every image before uploading them to the public gallery.”
“Digital watermarking allows creators to embed unique identifiers within audio and video files without affecting the overall quality, providing a legal trail for intellectual property disputes.”
“Developer Anthropic has announced the text output of Claude (one of the five big AI tools) will include a hidden label or watermark indicating the text is AI-generated.”
From water + mark.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.