Abstract: A system for protecting a proprietary medium is provided, the system comprising a processor and a memory having instructions stored thereon that when executed by the processor cause the processor to: identify at least one first feature of interest in an original digital image; generate a watermarked copy of the original image and generate a masked copy of the original image in which the first feature of interest is masked; combine the watermarked copy with the masked copy to provide a modified watermarked copy having a region of lower intensity watermarking corresponding to the location of the first feature of interest in the original digital image; and overlay the modified watermarked copy over the original image to provide a final copy in which the regions of lower intensity watermarking are aligned with the first feature of interest.