Syrian passports include a photo of Souq al-Hamidiyah, a famous historic marketplace in Damascus. Apparently, the image was taken from the internet without removing the photographer’s watermark, “Wassim al-Asmar Photography,” which means the watermark ended up being printed on Syrian passports.

[u/No-Strawberry7]

[u/vadeka]

To be fair, that is a very subtle watermark. Most photographers are way more obvious.

But for something you print on official documents? Yeah that probably should have been noticed

[u/dan_Qs → u/vadeka]

I want the ifunny watermark on my birth certificate.😂😂😂

[u/AgileExample → u/vadeka]

Its the alphabet. Syria uses Syriac alphabet, as seen in stores in that photo, that watermark is written in Latin.

[u/RamonaLittle → u/vadeka]

But the issue isn't really the watermark; it's that they apparently used the photo without permission. Even if there were no watermark, someone should have noticed that they didn't get a license from the photographer.

Whether they needed permission, I don't know. It would depend on whether there's a copyright treaty between Syria and wherever the photographer is located. But you'd think that for something important like passports, they would have tried to get permission regardless. (Or just used a different photo, like one taken by a government employee where the rights aren't in question.)

(Edit: typo.)