Photoshop CS has in-built censorship!

[francis]

No, I'm not making this up! This is quite frankly shocking (well, I think so). Photoshop CS, as a method of trying to prevent forgery, won't open images of bank notes. Naturally, people are starting to find ways around it.

Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/08/0111228&mode=thread&tid=152&tid=185) reported the issue. You can read people's reactions on the Adobe user forums (http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@251.aTiabueoSP3.265295@.2ccf3d27) (log in as a guest to view the thread). This was the image that sparked the discovery (http://pbx.mine.nu/Series2004NoteFront.jpg) (apparently), but it also works on other denominations.

Want to know how? (PDF) (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf).

[David]

Interesting. I've been working with CS for about a month now and only have good things to say about it. Mind you, I don't tend to have images of bank notes hanging around on my PC. Maybe I'll try scanning a tenner and see what happens.

[David]

Absolutely right. I downloaded this image (http://pbx.mine.nu/Series2004NoteFront.jpg) and tried to open it in Photoshop CS. I got this...

http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/watson/postimages/ps-banknote.gif

Damn, there goes my sideline in banknote fraud :D

If you click the "Information" button, you are sent to this website (http://www.rulesforuse.org/).

[francis]

Did you get the the whole studio package or did you just opt for Photoshop? I went for Illustrator CS as I love using Illustrator. It's very sad I know, but the first thing I saw was that the program had gone from being about 250Meg to a whopping 474Meg! I know there's a new type-engine that's in all of the new CS products, and they've added some 3D support, but that's a large increase.

What's annoying about the new CS type engine is that it's supposed to have "full Unicode character support". Except that I can't find any way at all of introducing Unicode characters (http://www.unicode.org/charts) into my work. For example, I cannot get the Unicode "north-east arrow" that I use on my sites' to denote external links. Its code is 2197. If I type that in Word XP and then hit Alt+X, I'll get the charater. Which I can't copy into Illustrator. I can view those characters in my broswers, but can't get into a product with "full Unicode support". Sheesh.

Anyway - very interested to see if your tenner scanning works. According to the Adobe forums it shouldn't work. Try copying this in (http://home.pchome.com.tw/web/mows/10pnote.jpg).

[David]

I get the same error message if I try to open the £10 note image as well. Hmm, very clever.

I just bought Photoshop. I did consider the suite but couldn't justify the cost as the other apps would have been "nice to have" rather than critical tools.

The new type engine is fantasitc - Photoshop CS now supports text fitted to curves as well as excellent typographic control. Haven't tried Unicode characters yet but I'll give it a go.

[francis]

Hope you didn't want to start a career designing covers for rap albums :D.

So - what does everyone think? We were talking about censorship (http://www.websitearchitecture.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=86) in an earier thread. Is this too far? Photoshop is the image manipulation program in use throughout the world. Bearing in mind that, depending on the resolution that the image is finally presented in, eletronic duplication of images is legal (this includes the UK), should Adobe be doing this?

It's worth noting from reading some other online comments that Paint Shop Pro is also doing this.

[David]

I think this has less to do with censorship and more to do with Adobe covering their backs...

You can just imagine the scene in court:

Question: "So Mr. Counterfeiter, how did you manage to make such good copies of those banknotes?"

Answer: "Oh, it was easy, I just used that excellent software program developed by Adobe. All of us counterfeiters use it."

[francis]

Shame about all those other copies of PS7, 6, 5.5 out there, then! By the looks of it, it's easy to get around. Apparently if you open up the image in ImageReady then flip over to Photoshop, you're in.

So - apart from using the workaraound above, how does a legitimate artist scan in images? People should be able to scan in/use whatever they like. And how far does this go? Do Adobe start adding in Corporate logos ("You are not allowed to import Adobe's, IBM's and Microsoft's corporate logos into this program")because they got paid a fat load of cash to do it. Do magazines and advertisers start printing invisible watermarks into their artwork so that they can't be used in Photoshop?

It seems a complete waste of time - the implementation is apparently so poor that they may as well have not bothered. If the ImageReady "fix" is correct (and I'm seeing more and more people saying that it is), imagine in the scene:

Judge: How did you make those excellent forgeries?
Conterfeiter: Well, I used Photoshop CS
Judge: Hang on, I thought that had in-built protection against that kind of thing
Adobe: Uh, well. Photoshop does, but ImageReady, the application that is bundled with Photoshop and designed to work seemlessly with it, doesn't.
Judge: Oh.

[James]

It's an odd thing to do.

I take your point David about Adobe's possible fear of litigation but if that's the reason then what about CD burning software to pirate music and films, should they ban manipulation of MP3s etc? Many things can be used to make illegal things - I can make a petrol bomb using a milk bottle a rag and petrol, but their sale is legal.

Also, most software can be hacked. If a counterfeiter really wanted to use Photoshop to do it and was serious enough they would employ a whizzkid to crack the code. It's amazing how quickly hacked versions of Photoshop CS appeared on Kazaa (disabling the 30 day trial expiry).

I find it most odd and would be interested to hear why this decision was made.

[David]

I think the point is that Adobe feel that they have to be seen to be making an effort. OK, it could be hacked and older versions of Photoshop could be used so it's not too difficult to get round. I think it's just a token.

I just tried the Image Ready workaround and it works without a hitch. So, out of the box, Photoshop with Image Ready can be used to open images of bank notes. This is a bizzare oversight by Adobe and slightly more worrying than the fact that they bothered to implement this form of "censorship" at all.

I take your point about MP3s but as far as I am aware, Adobe don't provide any software that can rip CDs. Although, I imagine that Premiere can read and write DVDs.

How far should software companies go to prevent their products being used for illegal purposes? My feeling is that they should probably go about as far as handgun manufacturers do to stop their firearms being used for illegal purposes.

[francis]

Originally posted by: James Barker
I find it most odd and would be interested to hear why this decision was made.

Et voila:

It's called "CDS" (counterfeit deterrence system) apparently:

Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=91981&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=152&mode=thread&cid=7925947)
Adobe forums (http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@190.iklMbGUvTNf.5@.2ccf3d27/269) (log in as guest)

One quote from the many online:

"So basically Adobe crippled their own products for the heroic purpose of not letting a few users use PhotoShop CS to make copies of notes. Next RIAA will ask them to do the same for Audio, MPAA for video. And sooner or later some coalition for morality will ask them to censon porn I think ?"

My quote of the day: "Hey Bill, you know it takes more energy to frown that it does to smile?" "Hey, do you know it takes more energy to tell me that than it does to leave me alone!"