The Best to use Watermarking software and Graphics software.

[NeedsGoodAdvice]

Hi Everybody

I am asking 2 main questions here , one about good graphics software and the other about watermark protecting my images software ... all input is greatly appreciated .

I have several company websites , a few are general merchandise websites and a one is a promotions website where I promote local bands and artist .
I do ALL of my own photo shoots via digital camera for the merchandise sites and the promotions site .
I now am finding it VERY neccessary to protect the images I have on my websites as I have been finding my pictures which I TOOK with my digital camera popping up in a lot of places on the net especially that myspace site !
I have tried using the graphics software that I currently have been using to put the name of the company or domain name on the image ( I currently use an old version of Jasc, Paint shop Pro and yes it is Old I know I need to upgrade but to what ?) and in some places I find the pictures with the info still on the image and in a lot of places the person(s) has REMOVED my company info and is using the image as their own .

I have been reading up on watermarking and copyrighting my images ...
There is so many watermarking programs to choose from which range anywhere from FREE to 49.00 to 499.99 , the 499.99 being something by Digimarc which has tracking capabilities of your images after they are watermarked .

What do you guys reccomend I use as a good graphics software and a good watermarking software .

OH , as far as graphics software I took a look at Dreamweaver , However, not only was it very expensive but looks like ya need to take a course and/or be a rocket scientist to figure it out and it has so many parts to it I got confused trying to figure out what I actually needed and didnt and the full version of it cost almost 3000.00 bucks ... Ouch !

Am looking for something user friendly .

Thanks
all input is greatly appreciated .

[Centauri]

Whilst Paint Shop Pro is a good graphics package (I use version 7, and haven't upgraded as they have gone to a confusing Photoshop type interface), and is capable of adding a watermark (have a look at istockphoto - their watermark on the samples is a diagonally crossed lines as well as the istockphoto logo - difficult to remove but sometimes possible), there is a wealth of metadata which can be embedded in the image that cannot be accessed by PSP (some basic stuff can be via image properties). Adobe Photoshop can access all of that metadata, but is an expensive proposition. There may be other cheaper software out there capable of editing the metadata - others with experience may be able to advise here.