Codes visible in comics

[mcfan41]

This may be a function of me not being observant   but have there always been number codes visible in the comics when you download?  I have been noticing them lately.  I assume its an anti-theft thing but it is fairly obvious.  

Never mind the answer was just below this in the forum.  I said I am not observant.      

[Geo]

Several months at least. Before that, they may have been better hidden and more easily circumvented or may not have been there at all. The goal of steganography is that you don't know it's there, but if you go too light handed, the markings are obliterated simply by reincoding the image as a a low-quality JPEG. Make them too small and the asshats put a blur or place a watermark of their own over it.

Me, I prefer a trust based system, but that's just not scaling well.