Along with it, an invisible digital “watermarking” system will certify and track limited digital editions, like certificates of authenticity for analog artwork, or digital rights management for digital music and e-books. In January, Depict raised $2.4 million for its product, which includes a platform for buying and displaying digital art at home. “Artists get a lot of exposure, but they aren’t able to claim ownership.” Depict’s Kim Gordon and Shambhavi Kadam Depict An authentication system like this, she says, could give digital art resale value, and allow artists to track purchases and take a share of the profits, joining a global art market that reached a record $53 billion in sales last year. “Sharing art online is a double-edged sword,” says Shambhavi Kadam, a cofounder of Depict, a San Francisco-based startup that is building a physical, 4K Ultra HD picture frame, along with “watermarking” software to protect works bought and sold on its platform. Along with money, the budding market has also raised some interesting questions: If digital art is built on a medium prone toward reproduction, how do you make a one-of-a-kind edition? You might hang digital art on your wall, but how do you prove who made it, or that you bought it?
