Friday, May 05, 2006

Photoshop thinks you're an idiot.

Hey Shopheads! Did you ever try to scan money with Photoshop? Well, it's "smart" enough to find out what you're doing and disallow it. Even though there are legal ways to use images of money in artwork, as long as you follow the rules. This pisses me off.

Deke is an over-caffeinated guy who has figured out a workaround. Thereby restoring your fair use rights. It's funny how this works, since it uses Photoshop's little add on program against it, like Aikido or Jiujitsu. This makes me happy.

9 comments:

TheGirard said...

leave it to chuck to try and counterfeit money with a Mac

Mkae said...

I don't understand why he's so offended you can't use Photoshop to counterfeit and why is this a "fair use" issue?

Shocho said...

I can't use Photoshop to scan a piece of money for any reason. Which means I can't use it even according to the fair use tenets described by law. Photoshop assumes that I'm trying to counterfeit.

Just like when I try to copy a song I bought from the iTunes Music Store and I can't, because it assumes I'm trying to make an illegal copy. When I might be doing something legal, like backing up my comptuer.

This is how DRM software makes everybody into a criminal, without actually catching the people breaking the law.

DEATH_BY_MONKEYS said...

No laws. Anarchy. Take that people.

Mkae said...

It actually is illegal to scan or photocopy money. There is no "fair use" to do so unless you meet the following restrictions:

"Photographic or other likenesses of other United States obligations and securities and foreign currencies are permissible for any non-fraudulent purpose, provided the items are reproduced in black and white and are less than three-quarters or greater than one-and-one-half times the size, in linear dimension, of any part of the original item being reproduced. Negatives and plates used in making the likenesses must be destroyed after their use for the purpose for which they were made. This policy permits the use of currency reproductions in commercial advertisements, provided they conform to the size and color restrictions."

Have you tried using Photoshop to scan it reduced or enlarged? I can see Adobe saying "screw it" and just not allowing it altogether. I don't think the song comparison is valid either.

However, if we see Shocho driving a Porsche and wearing an Armani suit, we'll know he figured it out. :)

Shocho said...

That is precisely what I meant by "fair use." It's not "illegal to scan or photocopy money," there are just laws about what you do with that scan or copy. It's not counterfeiting, it's art. It's not the business of Photoshop to prevent me from scanning money to use in an ad, as your quote describes.

Major Rakal said...

I don't understand what you mean by "using Photoshop to scan" money (or anything else, for that matter). My scanner has its own software that does the scanning. It creates a jpg which can then be opened and edited in Photoshop or other image-editing software. Photoshop doesn't have anything to do with the scanning process, at least not with my scanner.

Are you saying that Photoshop can recognize a jpg that depicts currency and refuse to let you open or edit it?

Shocho said...

Yes, Major, that's what they're telling us. Photoshop won't open the file. The video shows a workaround using Image Ready.

thisismarcus said...

Wow. Technology is scary. I wonder how many currencies it knows. Think I'll stick to scanning coins.