Adobe Responds To Vocal Uproar Over New Terms of Service Language (venturebeat.com) 34
Adobe is facing backlash over new Terms of Service language amid its embrace of generative AI in products like Photoshop and customer experience software. The ToS, sent to Creative Cloud Suite users, doesn't mention AI explicitly but includes a reference to machine learning and a clause prohibiting AI model training on Adobe software. From a report: In particular, users have objected to Adobe's claims that it "may access, view, or listen to your Content through both automated and manual methods -- using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our Services and Software and the user experience," which many took to be a tacit admission both of surveilling them and of training AI on their content, even confidential content for clients protected under non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality clauses/contracts between said Adobe users and clients.
A spokesperson for Adobe provided the following statement in response to VentureBeat's questions about the new ToS and vocal backlash: "This policy has been in place for many years. As part of our commitment to being transparent with our customers, we added clarifying examples earlier this year to our Terms of Use regarding when Adobe may access user content. Adobe accesses user content for a number of reasons, including the ability to deliver some of our most innovative cloud-based features, such as Photoshop Neural Filters and Remove Background in Adobe Express, as well as to take action against prohibited content. Adobe does not access, view or listen to content that is stored locally on any user's device."
A spokesperson for Adobe provided the following statement in response to VentureBeat's questions about the new ToS and vocal backlash: "This policy has been in place for many years. As part of our commitment to being transparent with our customers, we added clarifying examples earlier this year to our Terms of Use regarding when Adobe may access user content. Adobe accesses user content for a number of reasons, including the ability to deliver some of our most innovative cloud-based features, such as Photoshop Neural Filters and Remove Background in Adobe Express, as well as to take action against prohibited content. Adobe does not access, view or listen to content that is stored locally on any user's device."
Adobe terms of service slimy? I'm shocked! (Score:5, Funny)
Shocked!
Well, not that shocked.
I mean, this is a company that basically forced a rental model down the throats of an entire industry. Do you honestly think they care about their customers beyond them being something to exploit? ROFL.
Translation from corpspeak: We're sorry we got caught. We'll try not to do that again.
Re:Adobe terms of service slimy? I'm shocked! (Score:4)
We'll cover our tracks better with more legal language next time.
Sail the sea to freedom! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm just going to say it loud and clear: Pirate Photoshop. Their prices have always been ridiculous, now they're stealing your work.
Actually there are plenty of free alternatives to photoshop and other adobe products that work nearly as well. I use photopea.
In other words: There's no good reason to ever pay them money.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, I would rather pay someone else for their software than resort to pirating anything.
I don't pirate because I don't trust it. Was burned too many times back when I actually couldn't afford the software.
I don't mind paying for a thing as long as the thing doesn't turn into what Adobe decided to do.
( I'm looking at you Autodesk )
No. Don't. (Score:2, Informative)
Use and help out Gimp to improve it. Or fork it. Using a pirated version of PS just cements Adobe's dominance. Gimp has been my go-to image editor for more than 15 years now and it has served me well. And I do professional image editing(!).
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Gimp is pretty impressive. Sure, you need to get used to it, but that is true for any professional image editor.
Re:Sail the sea to freedom! (Score:4)
Don't pirate software. We know where that lands us : helping maintain adobe as the dominant player.
Donate to (aka pay for) & help the GIMP, Krita projects. If photpea is your cup of tea, help that.
Help create the tools you use, you have that power.
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The sooner GIMP dies, the better. GIMP is so feature complete, that once you touch it and realize its barely able to do real work... you sour to it.
The overall quality and development is completely different from Blender, as is its goal or timeline.
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Look into the Affinity set of tools.....Photo, Designer and Publisher...
I like these MUCH better than their Adobe counter parts....their iPad versions are just as full powered as their desktop ones, and the prices, especially when they go on sale about twice a year are a steal...and yes, it is a license your purchase, NOT rental.
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I use Affinity Photo, Designer, etc. Cheap and not subscription based.
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They really are at the forefront of the whole issue here because their customer base is the same people who are both the main customer, and the party most threatened by, automation of content creation.
I doubt content creators enjoy segmenting foreground objects out of a background pixel-by-pixel any more than anybody else. Well, automatin
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Of all the rumors I've heard of people losing jobs from AI the most substantiated seem to be graphic designers. See the Klarna CEO for more.
I'll bet they are very mad about this.
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Translation from corpspeak: We're sorry we got caught. We'll try not to do that again.
That's slightly misleading -- it sounds like "They won't do it again", when what you REALLY mean to say is: "They'll try not get caught again."
And even if so, apologize again, since it worked fine this time. After all, if you were actually upset you wouldn't use their product.
Re: (Score:2)
Translation from corpspeak: We're sorry we got caught. We'll try not to do that again.
That's slightly misleading -- it sounds like "They won't do it again", when what you REALLY mean to say is: "They'll try not get caught again."
Oh, the double entendre was quite intentional. :-D
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It's been like this forever. And not with only Adobe. It's fucking 2024 and people STILL haven't learned that storing things on someone else's computers will get whatever's stored peeked at? Come the fuck on....
You store shit on ANY third party cloud and you can't expect your data to not be accessed by the third party. Period.
If anyone is stupid enough to store stuff that is under NDA / confidential client material / their "private softcore porn" collection / or their dick pics on a third party cloud, expe
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So Adobe is into censorship now? (Score:2)
"as well as to take action against prohibited content" -- prohibited by who? In what jurisdiction? Federally prohibited? Texas or California? What kind of "action?" Is Adobe just censoring anything they disagree with?
Censorship is full of gray areas -- one person's fun is another person's sin. Sure, we all agree CSAM is taboo for very good reasons, but I would hate to think Adobe is passing moral judgment on my images.
Re:So Adobe is into censorship now? (Score:4, Informative)
US Currency for starters. Photoshop, even back in the Win9x days had a system to detect this type of content locally and prevent it from being loaded - as a means to help prevent counterfeiting currency. This is literally decades old for Adobe to be doing, long before "cloud" anything. The only difference now is we have an ignorant mob on the internet to get outraged by the status quo that's been there since nearly the beginning.
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Adobe's Generative AI won't work on anything it deems to be " adult " in nature.
If the stick of butter on the dinner table is too close to the color scheme of what their algorithms believe to be human skin, it will block you from working with it.
( Yes, it is literally that f****ng stupid )
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I dunno, I've seen Last Tango in Paris
AI assisted filters? (offtopic) (Score:3)
If AI created content can't be copyrighted, does that mean that nothing created by an Iphone, or as it this instance "generative AI in products like Photoshop." I am guessing this hasn't been legally tested but seems like something that could be argued in a court case.
It is a good thing I am not a lawyer so I can get away with such a stupid question.
I didn't pirate that picture it was in the public domain....
Iphones use AI in their camera apps, don't they?
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Iphones use AI in their camera apps, don't they?
Not in the content creating sense; at present it's used to evaluate the scene for focus, exposure, color balance, etc. and makes adjustments based on what it deems to be the intent of photo. The conventional legal understanding is that the person who clicks the shutter owns the copyright to the image - so as long as a human is involved, the copyright has a valid entity to which it can be assigned.
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If AI created content can't be copyrighted
No one said it couldn't. It can't be copyrighted by the AI, because that's just stupid.
Prohibited content? (Score:5, Insightful)
Prohibited by whom? And who asked Adobe to police private citizens?
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As noted above, US currency (and possibly other nations?), for decades.
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That's not Adobe's responsibility to handle the secret services job. It's essentially a work around for the US government to surveil citizens looking for crimes.
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This is a requirement for ALL image editing software, i.e. MS Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Corel Draw, Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP, etc.
If you want to test your image editing software, try editing the obverse of the US 20 dollar bill as shown on Wikipedia. The software should respond with a error message or at least refuse to print. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
In a World that doesn't suck (Score:2, Insightful)
Adobe shouldn't be looking at anything that anyone creates with their software. It is not their function to police and determine if what you are creating is within their Terms or Service or Usage Guidelines unless you're posting it online to servers / forums owned and moderated by Adobe.
They provide the tools. Period. What the user does with it is the user's perogative and as far as Adobe is concerned, as long as the user has paid Adobe to use the software, that -should- be all they care about. They're
So they responded by confirming it was true (Score:2)
but don't let it bother you because they've been doing it for years. They might want to rethink that tactic.
Agreeing Will Cost You Your Job! (Score:2)
Boycott Adobe! (Score:2)