National Geographic Magazine Digital Water Markings

[Subtitles]

I have recently subscribed to NGM.
To my disappointment, all the past issues in the archive can't be downloaded and the only thing they offer is to print to pdf, which comes out with
water markings on all the pages. This is quite distracting when reading offline.
I sent a message to support but this can take few days to get a response.
If anyone on this forum has a subscription to NGM digital, please let me know if there is a way to download the magazine without water markings.

Thank you.

[TreeTops]

I suspect they do that to protect others from using those photos for profit. Our real estate person here has to watermark all published home photos because the bad guys use home photos to rent the home to a unsuspecting soul by asking for a deposit up front then absconding with the money.

[Subtitles]

I suspect they do that to protect others from using those photos for profit. Our real estate person here has to watermark all published home photos because the bad guys use home photos to rent the home to a unsuspecting soul by asking for a deposit up front then absconding with the money.

I doubt if this has anything to do with using their photos for illegal purposes because the magazine doesn't have any water marks but a copy does.
They are just mean.

[GAhere]

I suspect they do that to protect others from using those photos for profit. Our real estate person here has to watermark all published home photos because the bad guys use home photos to rent the home to a unsuspecting soul by asking for a deposit up front then absconding with the money.

I doubt if this has anything to do with using their photos for illegal purposes because the magazine doesn't have any water marks but a copy does.
They are just mean.

Most likely the watermark on the downloaded digital copy is to prevent you and others from being able to make the digital copy available to others for free or for a lesser amount than a subscription..

In other words they are protecting their "works" from theft or misuse.

Their sandbox, their rules.

Read it online assuming there is no watermarks on the online version.

[valet123]

I was able to remove the overlay by opening PDF Adobe Acrobat Pro and invoking Tools: Content Editing: Edit Text & Images. I was able to choose the Watermark which is a separate image and deleting it.
[Attachment 92032 - Click to enlarge]

[Subtitles]

I was able to remove the overlay by opening PDF Adobe Acrobat Pro and invoking Tools: Content Editing: Edit Text & Images. I was able to choose the Watermark which is a separate image and deleting it.
[Attachment 92032 - Click to enlarge]

Thanks.
It is good to know that there is a solution.
I don't have Acrobat Pro only ABBYY FineReader which doesn't have this feature.

[Subtitles]

I suspect they do that to protect others from using those photos for profit. Our real estate person here has to watermark all published home photos because the bad guys use home photos to rent the home to a unsuspecting soul by asking for a deposit up front then absconding with the money.

I doubt if this has anything to do with using their photos for illegal purposes because the magazine doesn't have any water marks but a copy does.
They are just mean.

Most likely the watermark on the downloaded digital copy is to prevent you and others from being able to make the digital copy available to others for free or for a lesser amount than a subscription..

In other words they are protecting their "works" from theft or misuse.


Their sandbox, their rules.

Read it online assuming there is no watermarks on the online version.

They have been trying to get me to subscribe for at least a year when I showed an interest.
But just when I become a member they shouldn't treat members as potential criminals doing illegal actions like giving away their magazines to others.
The least they can do is to say that the printed copies from the archive has a watermark and not let the paying members discover this after subscribing.

[ListyDoM]

FineReader is designed not for editing but for creating an OCR layer.
It's just a collection of image blocks on the page. Use PDF-XChange Editor

[Subtitles]

@ListyDoM thanks.
I will keep this in mind.

[GAhere]

I suspect they do that to protect others from using those photos for profit. Our real estate person here has to watermark all published home photos because the bad guys use home photos to rent the home to a unsuspecting soul by asking for a deposit up front then absconding with the money.

I doubt if this has anything to do with using their photos for illegal purposes because the magazine doesn't have any water marks but a copy does.
They are just mean.

Most likely the watermark on the downloaded digital copy is to prevent you and others from being able to make the digital copy available to others for free or for a lesser amount than a subscription..

In other words they are protecting their "works" from theft or misuse.


Their sandbox, their rules.

Read it online assuming there is no watermarks on the online version.

They have been trying to get me to subscribe for at least a year when I showed an interest.

That should have been a very large "sign" right off the bat to not bother with subscribing. I call that to be predatory which also could be considered as a spammer/scammer type of action..

But just when I become a member they shouldn't treat members as potential criminals doing illegal actions like giving away their magazines to others.

I think you will find that they treat ALL "members" as potential criminals to "protect" their works and assets and it is their prerogative and right to "give away" their print magazines at no cost as a marketing ploy..

Ever heard of a "sample"?

Places like Sam's club (US) that you have to have a paid membership to enter the club and buy products will have in store "samples" of food for "free" as a marketing ploy.. They also will sometimes have a "free" one day limited membership promo to entice non members to come in and buy a membership.

The least they can do is to say that the printed copies from the archive has a watermark and not let the paying members discover this after subscribing.

A print copy can only go to one person at a time, subscriber reads it then can hand off to another person this limits the "free" portion to a very small audience and hence limits the potential loss of subscribership.

Once the digital "horse" leaves the barn, it is impossible to rein it back in..

All it takes is one person downloading an unlocked non watermarked digital document and giving the entire Internet 100% free unfettered access to that document to render the subscribership model 100% useless putting them out of business in a short hurry.

I suspect that their full intention with digital subscription is not really for use with OFFLINE reading, but for you to be ONLINE in order to read it without watermarks.

The availability to download for offline use may have been more for a "sample copy" as a marketing ploy for potential subscribers, (IE, you give a friend the watermarked digital copy to read and they would have to become a subscriber and read online to get watermark free reading)..

Many Internet websites block or attempt to prevent users from downloading content, not unusual or illegal at all for them to do so.

Something else to think on, as a PDF form, they CAN lock (set the security bit) to prevent printing and editing without having a password to unlock the document.

[GAhere]

They don't tell you specifically that it may be watermarked, however if you read the TOS there is an expectation that downloaded content may have copyright or proprietary notices embedded or attached (see bolded undlerlined text) AND you are expected to maintain those items in your downloaded copy.

NG TOS..

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/terms-of-service/

"...Your use and browsing of the Service is at your risk. If you are dissatisfied with any of the materials contained in the Service, with the quality of Service, or with these Terms, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue accessing and using the Service. ...

... Not to reproduce, distribute, modify, re-post on another Service (regardless of the server on which the Content is stored), or sell any Content without specific written authorization from the Society, unless such use is an Educational Use of Content as specified in these Terms.

To maintain any and all copyright or other proprietary notices embedded in or attached to any Content.

To refrain from framing, inline linking, or mirroring any portion of the Service. ...

...
3.1 Prohibition on Data Scraping

For full clarity and without affecting previous rights reservations, National Geographic Society expressly affirms that:

Any past, present or future access, use, copying, reproduction, extraction, distribution or exploitation of any of the works or content (or portion thereof) owned or controlled by National Geographic Society (including recordings, audiovisual recordings, composition, lyrics, artwork, images, data, metadata, etc.) for the purpose of text and data mining, Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) training, development or commercialisation of AI systems, tools or technology, web scraping, mining, altering, making extractions, preparing derivative works or similar purposes, and by any means, is prohibited, except as specifically and expressly licensed by National Geographic Society in the form of a written licence. The use of any artist name, image, likeness and voice also requires specific permission.

National Geographic Society expressly reserves its rights in respect of the use of National Geographic Society’s content, including without limitation under Article 4 of the EU Directive 2019/790/EC to the fullest extent permitted (or not otherwise restricted) under such laws (in the event that a court decides this Article might apply to the above uses, an interpretation we should add we do not agree with). Our reservation applies to all content owned or controlled by National Geographic Society, now or in the future, including where this content may be identified through publicly available means. .."

[Subtitles]

I guess I will have to read the magazine using their interface then.

The offline copy is useful when there are problems with login for example. Just after I was able to access the archive, I had login problems for 3 days all of a sudden and then it was back to normal. When I asked them for support they gave me the usual answer to clear the browser cache (which I will never do because it has never been proven that clearing the browser cache would solve any such issues).

Now the big question:

Why do they offer digital subscription only to the USA and Canada at a reasonable cost about $35 (for first year) but in other countries they offer only print + Digital subscription at $80?
It will take 8-12 weeks for the first printed issue to arrive, by which time I would have read the digital version from the archive?
I thought National Geographic Magazine is ECO Friendly organization but by insisting on me paying more ($45) for a paper copy that I will never read, they are just increasing the number of trees that are to be nocked down.