Znak wodny jako wypowiedź o dziedzictwie

This article analyses social functions of a watermark placed in the content of digitalized artefacts of heritage. It presents the weaknesses of this way of protecting collections, prone to decoding and taking over, and still referring to the base of a digital copy (object – centeredness). It describes the pattern of comments on heritage, whose media is a watermark. Eventually, a watermark does no longer have to be a tool or a helping hand in the commercialization of collections, but it becomes an attempt to protect the canon, a confirmation of institution’s significance – as a depositary of artefacts, but also of the knowledge about them, and even a certain kind of ethical act.