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Photoshop CS Adds Banknote Image Detection, Blocking?
Phosphor writes "A visitor to the Adobe Photoshop-for-Windows Forum (registration required to post, can log in as guest) has described a curious 'feature' with Photoshop 8 (also known as 'CS'). Seems this latest version of Adobe's flagship product has the built-in ability to detect that an image is of American currency. Something has been built into Photoshop's core coding that can detect something in images of currency and will prevent the user from opening the file. Apparently it will also do this with Euro notes; info on other currency is pending." According to other online reports, the latest version of Paint Shop Pro has similar restrictions, also known about since late last year.
Am I the only one who doesnt see this as a huge problem? I could be missing something though.....
I'm a little tea pot.
Not only is this rather invasive, as other posters have commented, but what's the point? I mean, their are dozens of other much better anti-counterfeiting measures on today's currency. So why have this "feature" at all? It really seems like a waste to me.
Join moola.com, play games to earn money.
Ok, the it starts with banknotes.
It continues with pr0n.
But where will it end?
Who has the right to decide what kind of image I view/edit? A law, praps a judge. Certainly not a sw-producer!
The checkbox said "Requires Windows 98, NT, or better. And so I installed Linux
...as if this has truly long-term effects. I suppose counterfeiters might prefer photoshop, but what about those that prefer Gimp? I guess since Photoshop stands in their way, then Gimp will become their new favorite.
Time and time again it is generally not the ink but the paper that most needs duplication when attempting counterfeit. I see this as a silly waste of resources. Generally speaking, if I or just about anyone I know were inclined to do anything with the image of currency, it'd probably be to deface it in some way... or maybe put my face in there... who knows what cheesy thing that has been done a hundred times before.
The point is, even though there's not likely to be a huge public outcry about this, this does offer a pretty interesting blow to free expression. Who influenced the action?
Unless the application developer actualy increases sales of their product through this feature then why bother?
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut (where's my tinfoil hat anyway?), if this is of benefit only to the reserve bank then how was Adobe/Jasc/Xerox/etc convinced to implement this?
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
This is interesting...and so typical of people looking a reason to get all flustered for the sake of just blustering against "Big Brother", et al....no matter how weak or baseless the reasons.
Security invasion? Privacy invasion? Where? This is not a case of Photoshop sending a report of your attempt to make a copy of currency, it's simply a step that Adobe is taking to try and help be one of the "good guys". I fail to see how you can claim that counterfeit efforts using cheap (comparitively), easily obtainable hardware and software is not a problem...especially when several news items have stated that this *is* in fact a rising problem. Literally less than a week ago I watched a story on the local news about convenience store owners being passed fake 20's that were only spotted when doing the daily books or readying the deposits. In a busy environment, the money duplication doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to pass a quick glance and feel like 1 of the 1000 some odd variations in currency texture from wear and tear (circulation). It clearly is a problem, and even if not epidemic, it is still a real and valid concern.
Yes, you can use GIMP or other programs to avoid this, yes there are far more sophisticated methods to making fake currency. Adobe has decided to take some form of action to do their part to not be a tool used for this.
Invasion of security and privacy? Again...where? Do you understand the meaning of these words?
I respect the decision made by Adobe, and refer to my original point...at this time, being that this only affects trying to copy currency, I see no legitimate complaint or impairment of functionality, or "invasion" of any kind.
Besides, on another level, if Adobe continues directing all of their attention towards preventing currency fraud, it means less effort on troublesome protection efforts that keep me from pirating their software.
oops...did I just type that?
Every run-of-the-mill grocery store I've been to recently has checked my 20 or 50 euro bills with a blacklight. The blacklight lamp has been placed so that when the clerk takes your bill he'd have to make an effort not to move it under the light.
The owls are not what they seem
What are you blathering on about? The Euro notes have far better anti-counterfeit measures on them than the uniqueness of the images on them. Perhaps you've not seen one, but they have metallic foil elements, watermarks, etc that would be impossible to fake without some serious hardware.
You might be able to pass off a fake US note easily enough in the right conditions (dim lighting in a busy, smokey bar) but you'd have to find a blind barman to be able to pass off your colour laser copies of a Euro note as the real thing: as far as I'm aware, nobody makes a laser printer that lets you emboss silver foil onto (and into) a piece of paper.
You're whole "unique arches to avoid confusion with holiday snaps" argument is ridiculous too. The reason why the Euro notes have images of various styles of European achitecture thoughout the ages on them (Gothic, etc) is because those styles are generic enough to be found across the continent. If you had specific pieces of achitecture on the notes, say a 10 Euro note with the Eiffel Tower on it and a 20 Euro note with the Leaning Tower of Pisa on it, then you'd find countries getting into pissing contests over whose monuments shoud appear on the highest value notes. You'd also run out of note values before you ran out of countries, and thereby alienate any countries that weren't represented.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
How do you know it only scans for banknotes? Maybe it scans your private pictures for known terrorists and sends the information during the next product activation? Next thing you know a SWAT team raids your house because your uncle Pete, who has a long beard, looks like a terrorist to PS CS.
What if you have pictures of chemical elements needed to make biological weapons on your computer? Does PS CS know you're a chemistry student?
Go ahead, make tinfoil hat jokes all you like, but do you know it's only limited to banknotes?
keep it simple.
The only reason I've ever edited images of currency was to produce joke bills with somebody elses face on them, or 1,000,000 notes.
Like tinyurl, but one letter less! http://qurl.co.uk/
Ever had a retail job?
People who handle hundreds or thousands of bills a day are exactly the ones who will instantly notice small variations without even consciously checking. Even if your print looks "good enough", it almost certainly won't *feel* right.
Changing the currency probably only worsens the problem. If people get used to the idea that money changes all the time, they'll be willing to take any random thing you offer them. We've already got three versions of the same denomination in circulation right now; they'd better not change it again for at least a few decades.
What is worrying here is not the fact that this feature was built into Photoshop but that it was done secretly. This kind of secret arrangement between companies and government has long tradition in the US, but think about other nice features that can be put into closed source software as a result. Some may not be as easy to detect.
but I cannot see a single real scenario where this truly makes a problem for anyone
When I wanted to copy currency was when I was contructing a three dollar bill, and I was going to use other currency as a template.
One legit application I can think of for scanning currency would be for collectors who wish to archive their collection. At one point I had a 1986 Canadian $2.00 bill... near as I can tell they switched to a two and one dollar coin a long time ago. While you might consider this nutty... imagine stamp collectors. Legit enough hobby.
I wanted to show it to someone, who was a canadian, and did a scan, making sure I put on it in bold friendly letters "copy copy copy copy".
That reminds me, I do have some out of print currency I should take the time to scan. Unique images should be saved.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Yes, it does prevent many of them. Since you can't scan the bill, how do you ever get it to the point where you can change it to comply with the law?
Your other point, about not buying the product, is valid. However, if the information is not disclosed to you how can you make an informed decision?
You talk about a "group of people" telling a manufacturer that they cannot produce and sell a particular product. This is called advocacy. How does a manufacturer learn that it's products are not well received if no one is ever supposed to say anything? How will the market ever learn enough to avoid products that do bad things if no one brings the subject up? We have the right to say "this is bunk!" You have the right to ignore it and buy Photoshop if you like.
Ok... to the nearest 0.1cm (0.03 inches) , a $1 note is approximatly 15.5cm (6.102 inches) long, and 6.5cm (2.559 inches) wide...
:)
Now, using best judgement, a scale of 36 pixels per cm (91.44 per inch) [worked out to be a 1:1 copy of our image size at 1024x768], gives an image of 558 pixels by 234 pixels.
Note, the above is approximate, and can be obtained at higher accuracy with a ruler and some time
You are right about the fact that resolution determines the pixels across, the above being a sample at 104x768; however, using phsical dimentions, the program could then have an internal list of cm/inches to pixels on the most common resolutions, and use that (or even a fourmula, which I'm sure that we could work out given a bit of time).
NeoThermic
Use my link above, or to view my server, NeoThermic.com
Honestly, I am more interested in how they can recognize banknotes algorithmically. What happens if you put the note in at a 30 degree angle? What happens if you put the note in with another not overlappiong the edge a bit so that the aspect ratio is not the same. How do the ydeal with different resolutions. Will it work if I photograph a banknote and scan in the picture??
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Honestly, I am more interested in how they can recognize banknotes algorithmically.
If you can detect faces in images by computing a database of eigenfaces, and computing an image's representation as a vector in the resulting so-called "face space", then I see no reason one cannot do this with eigendollars as well.
Mechanik
Even if the algorithm would recognize naked people perfectly, it would not recognize clothing-fetishes, from naughty french maids and nurses to leather and rubbergames.
Why wouldn't it be possible for Adobe Photoshop CS (or any other commercial, proprietary, non-Open Source) application to just report it automatically, online, via a couple of small UDP/TCP packets to the proper authorities? Not only will they get your machine name, serial number of the software, IP address, provider, etc. but we're all connected anyway, you probably wouldn't even see the packets go across.
Just something to think about.
EXCELLENT!
Getting laid off? Shut down all the copiers in the office with that $20 bill in your pocket.
Have a lifelong dream of a Kinkos DoS attack? Good news!
I have had a similar experience with Illustrator. I had to embed some eps figures (complex math equations made from latex, with fonts embedded in the eps). Acrobat shows the pdf fine, but illustrator has a lot of problems.
Turns out that Illustrator doesn't want people to use unauthorized fonts. So, I copy the latex fonts to distiller directory and try to view the equations -- they are messed up, because latex shifts the fonts a bit (characters in the fonts) to accomodate other viewers, and that shifted font table is inside the eps. So, I get strange characters in the equations *after taking care of putting in the fonts at the right place*.
I believe in this case, the rule was, "thou shall not pirate fonts." Doesn't matter if the fonts are
20 yr old fonts in public domain.
Over simplified rules "thou shall not photocopy money" are similar in spirit to the Talebanesque rules like "thou shall not look at another woman's face". Duh, I may be the only doc around and if the woman has a tumor on her face (or other, more private parts), I should be able to see it to cure it.
S
Not only are you flat out wrong about what the law forbids, I feel compelled to offer up the idea that not all laws are Constitutional. Now I doubt anyone has attempted to beat a forgery rap on that basis, since the Constitution specifically discusses punishing counterfeiting-- but the way the law is written may well violate the First Amendment.
As a comparable situation, while it is illegal to hack into other computer systems, tools that may aid in the process are quite useful to those discussing computer security issues. Indeed, published exploits for certain vulnerabilities are the best way to communicate to everyone involved exactly what is needed to exploit the vulnerability... and as such provide a sort of unit test as developers attempt to close the hole.
So back to money... why shouldn't currency collectors be able to scan and print images of money? Why shouldn't those writing cash handling policies at retail establishments be allowed to use currency images in their chapter on detecting forgeries? What about an artist making a statement about greed? But that's why the law allows for reproduction under a wide range of circumstances and why I think it's lame that Adobe would just go ahead and do this. I guess it's time for me to go see if the GIMP has a Paypal donation button.