Photoshop Creative Suite Analyzes Images for Illegal Content

Adobe User Forums ^ | 1/10/2004 | Web board comment

[Richard Kimball]

We received a TIFF image from a customer, of a $20 bill. The image does *not* violate any laws regarding reproduction of currency (it's not even close to actual-size, and it's not a "flat" portrayal - it's wavy, as if it's fluttering in the wind. Nor is it real-color.

However, Photoshop CS refuses to open the image, and provides an error message regarding the (il)legality of currency reproduction and an "information" button that takes you to the web. (Photoshop 7, of course, has no such qualms).

What the hell is this? In my book this is completely unacceptable - Photoshop is an image editor, not a censor, government policy enforcer or anything else.

Adobe, you've got some explaining to do.

Brian

[GregoryFul]

Sounds like an urban myth to me. I doubt that pattern matcheing s/w is anywhere near capable of recognizing specific images of money.

[Richard Kimball]

Read the rest of this thread. It's real. According to another article, this was specifically to prevent counterfeiting, and does not recognize any other types of images. Pattern recognition software is highly advanced, though. It's used for all fingerprint recognition, and there are now facial recognition programs that can, with a significant degree of accuracy, identify individuals. There are also programs that can project how people will look after aging a specific number of years.

I suspect that this particular initiative is part of the anti-terror campaign. I know that part of the Al Qaida plan was to massively counterfeit and use the money to both finance terrorism and flood the US with counterfeit bills.

[MississippiMan]

A friend of mine just opened a nice image of a dollar bill with nary a problem in Photoshop CS.

MM

[chaosagent]

"Not only does it keep intruders out of your machine, it keeps software running on your machine from connecting externally without your knowledge."

"Yes, but only once. After you've "allowed" the program it'll connect and, barring some kind of monitor program, you'll never know it."

Not exactly true. If you don't tell Zonealarm to remember the setting, it will ask you everytime the program tries to access the Internet.

[garbanzo]

would have minimal impact on honest customers

Always the dodge...if you have nothing to hide why be afraid...

[Egon]

A friend of mine just opened a nice image of a dollar bill with nary a problem in Photoshop CS.

Try a larger denomination. It's not really cost effective to counterfeit $1 bills.

[Hildy]

You're welcome.

[reformed_democrat]

I've used Photoshop since version 3 and have never had any complaints about it, except for its exorbitant price. I upgrade on even numbers only (4, 6, and now CS instead of PS8) to save money. I've wanted Illustrator, but one $500.00 program per vendor is quite enough, in my opinion.

So when I read this from the Adobe website, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. One $170.00 upgrade, and I have every Adobe product I could ever want.:

Q: What is the Adobe Creative Suite?

A: The Adobe Creative Suite brings together full, new versions of Adobe's latest print and Web publishing tools in a comprehensive design environment. It combines the full, new versions of Photoshop CS with Adobe ImageReady® CS, Illustrator CS, InDesign CS, GoLive CS, and Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional with the innovative new Version Cue file version manager.

Q: Are the components of the suite scaled-down versions of Adobe's award-winning creative applications?

A: No. The Adobe Creative Suite provides the full functionality of the new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive, which now bear the CS denominator, as well as Acrobat 6.0 Professional. The suite model allows each tool to excel at its core competency, for example, for InDesign to be the best print layout tool while also offering additional features that improve integration, simplify workflows, and help you work more productively.

Yep, CS has it all, including spyware -- which they forgot to list as a "feature."

[Quix]

I'm stuck back with PHOTOSHOP 6

Is it too late to upgrade to 7 and what would that price have been?

I'm terribly clutsy with it. A lot of what I try to do is not that intuitive, it seems, to me.

Anyway--thanks for the article. Interesting.

[Quix]

They've been collecting tons on us for decades.

It's gotten worse and worse and is really insideously horrid already and not even a 1/4th of as bad as it will be.

[Lazamataz]

This country is become a friggin' surveillance industrial complex, this stuff will be in demand. It's starting to piss me off.

Agreed. Southack, you should decide to start objecting more -- unless you are cool with being survielled all the time.

Which I'm not convinced isn't the case, from our in-person and on-line exchanges.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Doe Photoshop also check for pictures of naked majas?

[Richard Kimball]

Photoshop is a terrific program, but it takes quite a while to figure out. It's not something you sit down and learn in a half hour. Many of the features are designed for graphics professionals, where color coordination through several systems are critical (monitor, color separations, sending to a print shop, etc.) I use it exclusively for image editing and printing (I do photography as a hobby), and I need the colorspace profiles for my printing.

It took me close to a year to get fairly proficient with it, and I still learn new stuff every time I use it.

This is pretty simple, but I used it in a wedding album I just did

PS 6 is a very capable program. I only upgraded because I switched platforms from PC to Mac.

[Quix]

Thanks for the input.

I'll keep at it when I get some other projects further along.

I have a pic of my granddad that is a classic old cowboy, wrinkled face, cowboy hat etc. And I want to change the color of the bandana around his neck and his shirt. I don't remember now if the original is sepia toned or BW or what. Anyway--just remember being very frustrated my first 8 attempts.

Thanks for your input.

Blessings to you and your in the New Year.

[Khurkris]

...my toes were cold this morning...but they warmed up.

Dullest Blog In The World?

...another morning...sun came up...night will follow...

[MississippiMan]

Try a larger denomination. It's not really cost effective to counterfeit $1 bills.

I sent him a nice crisp image of a $100. It too opened without a hitch. This is starting to sound like an urban legend. Has anyone HERE actually seen the refusal to open a file? Another possibility, if it's actually true, is that it's happening in the Creative Suite Photoshop only, and not the stand-alone Photoshop CS that my bud has.

MM

[Egon]

I sent him a nice crisp image of a $100.

I haven't seen anything that large since I've been married.

[Southack]

You have a right to your property, not to privacy. Buy enough property to give yourself privacy, that's fine. But expect to have "privacy" rights next door to a public park, freeway, or internet highway and you are just blowing smoke. Won't happen.

Now, this thread, if true, does bring up an interesting sub-concept. If PhotoShop really is looking for the hidden watermarks placed onto bills, then you could pull off a pretty good prank on news reporters by placing that watermark, enlarged, near the podium for political speakers.

The software should recognize the watermark and refuse to edit their pictures.

One could imagine a situation in which scufflaws could no longer do photoshop hack jobs on any popular figures, simply by the judicious use of watermarks in public. Heck, you could make a whole line of watermark hats and clothing such that no public picture of a celebrity could be edited by the tabloid rags and digital bloggers.

[apillar]

Anyone care to take a guess at how long it will take some teenager to crack this anti-copy device.

I imagine that they are working dilligently and a crack will be widely available any day now, making the whole argument (and the money the government and the company spent) irrelevant.

[vdubelu]

A way around the Photoshop CS Currency Protection.

http://s92873501.onlinehome.us/Series2004NoteFrontPROTECTION.jpg

Notice the white square. This is where photoshop looks to verify it is money. This picture can now be opened in photoshop with no problem.