I consider it absolutely positively not Adobe's business, ever to be attempting to control the content of images I may desire to edit. The existence of this hidden filter is deceitful and its behavior is intrusive.
Beyond that, the filter is pathetically easy to bypass.
Neither Adobe nor its Currency Oracle has the ability to know a user's intentions. As such, it intrudes on innocent use, while savvy Bad Guys can easily bypass it. (Do you suppose that image editing counterfeiters are all nitwits?) What is gained? Who do you imagine is actually being prevented from working, with illegal intent, on currency images?
It is fundamentally impossible to make the filter "smart" enough detect all workarounds. This is akin to copy protection all over again. It simply can never succeed. The harder you try, the more resources you will waste is a silly pursuit of... what? Meanwhile, paying users will be harmed by the intrusion of ever more sensitive "oracles" (which will trigger ever more false alarms).
From the viewpoint of corporate PR, this move is simply incredibly stupid. The fact that you are willing to divert resources to implement the technology, when it can easily be worked around begs the question of what else Adobe may have in mind in the way of SpyWare for the future. Or what else other SpyWare is in the product already, but yet to be discovered? Disclaimers about good intention mean nothing in the face of devious action. Trust is an important commodity, and you squander it.
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I consider it absolutely positively not Adobe's business, ever to be attempting to control the content of images I may desire to edit. The existence of this hidden filter is deceitful and its behavior is intrusive.
Beyond that, the filter is pathetically easy to bypass.
Neither Adobe nor its Currency Oracle has the ability to know a user's intentions. As such, it intrudes on innocent use, while savvy Bad Guys can easily bypass it. (Do you suppose that image editing counterfeiters are all nitwits?) What is gained? Who do you imagine is actually being prevented from working, with illegal intent, on currency images?
It is fundamentally impossible to make the filter "smart" enough detect all workarounds. This is akin to copy protection all over again. It simply can never succeed. The harder you try, the more resources you will waste is a silly pursuit of... what? Meanwhile, paying users will be harmed by the intrusion of ever more sensitive "oracles" (which will trigger ever more false alarms).
From the viewpoint of corporate PR, this move is simply incredibly stupid. The fact that you are willing to divert resources to implement the technology, when it can easily be worked around begs the question of what else Adobe may have in mind in the way of SpyWare for the future. Or what else other SpyWare is in the product already, but yet to be discovered? Disclaimers about good intention mean nothing in the face of devious action. Trust is an important commodity, and you squander it.