Is it illegal to remove watermarks?

many pictures have watermark on it to protect the copyright. for the photos on shuttertstock Is it illegal to remove watermarks from those stock photos? we will talk about some watermark remover tips in this article. 

Many picture takers use watermarks, such as their names and the copyright notice, on their pictures to deter others from taking them, however the watermark can be simply trimmed or cloned over. Watermarks are a far superior motivation to use in the DMCA portion of the Copyright Act. A violation of the Copyright Act occurs when somebody removes the watermark from your photograph so that it can camouflage the encroachment when it is used. there are many different watermark remover tools in the market, like MarkGo watermark remover and thepaint photo editor, hitpaw watermark remover etc, how do you use those tools to remover watermark . 

Three possible reasons ring true to me:

The creator created the watermark, by accident erasing the first. The work is deserted copyright (ill-defined situation?) Therefore, the author needs to figure out how to eliminate the watermark. 

There is a possibility that the watermark is a logo from an old TV network that no longer exists. A question asker may want to know how to remove the watermark for personal reasons.

It is an infringement to remove a watermark of another without a commercial purpose; however, it is not going to be investigated. The owner of the image may be held accountable or punished for damage caused to the image's reputation or property rights. As a civil act, the people do not sue or investigate the officials, and the investigation or investigation is controlled by the author of the picture. Copyright remains the property of the author no matter how it is used. A licensee of a copyright only acquires the right to use the work in a certain way within a certain period, within the scope of the contract, and the underlying copyright remains with the copyright owner and will not cause any rights defects. In general, a licensee cannot sue an infringer directly, since the licensee does not possess a copyright, unless the copyright owner allows him to sue directly, since he is not subject to the copyright.