Topic awaiting preservation: Photoshop CS Adds Banknote Image Detection, Blocking? (Page 1 of 1)

haha, still interested in counterfeiting money?

heh, guess the counterfeiters will have to stick with 7 then. That is a prety cool feature though.

I'm not a money counterfeiting expert, but I doubt that the plain image of a bank note is the most sensitive thing on earth. Defeating the security features based on various inks, texture of the paper, embeded security thread, holograms ... is the key, and it's not with just Photoshop that you can do that.

That way, they would probably avoid some stupid kids to scan and print the banknotes they picked in their mother's wallet with a cracked version of Photoshop, but they would certainly not harm the real counterfeiters.

Images of banknotes are usually available for download, but when for professional purpose you need some, you need a certain quality an not "something" in 72dpi.



[This message has been edited by poi (edited 01-21-2004).]

mhm, yah. that sounds logical, but maybe somebody introduced a new law?

Since it's also a feature in Paint Shop Pro, I'm guessing this wasn't just a whim on Adobe's part... this sounds like a "command from on high" as it were.

$0.02 <--- counterfit pennies yo...


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...

I guess everytime counterfeiters have been caught a copy of Photoshop hasn't been too far away.. following that logic ...

Not that I realy care much about it, but it does kind of piss me off that there's not a single mention in the docs or lienceing agreement. At least none that I have found at this time. If such a feature is to be included there should at least be some kind of disclaimer. It seem a little deceitfull on Adobe's part.


By the way, This was found and quoted from the Adobe User to User Forum.

quote:

---

Kevin Connor - 06:33pm Jan 8, 2004 Pacific (#269 of 344)

As someone at Adobe who was involved in the decision to include counterfeit deterrence in Photoshop CS, let me finally provide you with a response to all of these concerns and questions. Sorry for the delay!:

Photoshop CS does indeed include a counterfeit deterrence system (CDS) to prevent the illegal duplication of banknotes. The CDS was created by a consortium of central banks from around the world. We, along with other hardware and software manufacturers, have included CDS in our products at their request to address the threat posed by the use of digital technologies in the counterfeiting of banknotes. There are other software products from other companies that already use this same technology. There are also hardware products that use the same or similar technology. For example, most color copiers sold today will not allow you to copy currency.

As digital imaging technology advances, becoming more broadly available and user friendly, the old barriers to currency reproduction are becoming less effective. The unscrupulous are taking advantage of the functionality that is being provided to the vast majority of honest users for the purposes of counterfeiting currency. In the US and around the world, counterfeiting through digital means is increasing exponentially, and retailers and the general public--including our own customers--are at risk.

Counterfeit currency is essentially a hot potato. Whoever holds it last, loses. The person who loses isn't necessarily the counterfeiter. There's no government body in place to "reimburse" people who, through no fault of their own, get paid with currency that turns out to be counterfeit. In our implementation of CDS, we've worked very hard to balance the need to protect these unsuspecting victims of counterfeiting along with the need to continue to provide a product that efficiently does what honest customers need it to do.

There appear to be several major concerns and objections repeated throughout this message thread, so I'll try to address each one individually:

1. Performance: CDS does not cause any noticeable slowdown in Photoshop performance. During most operations performed in Photoshop, CDS is not used at all. When it is used, the performance impact often is just a fraction of a second.

2. Legal use of notes: It is true that the current implementation of CDS will prevent you from scanning in your own banknotes even if your usage intent is entirely within legal boundaries. Regulations for using banknote images vary by country. It is the responsibility of the central bank in each country to provide images that can be used within the legal guidelines of that country. In other words, if you want to legally reproduce images of the new $20US bills on a Web site or in a marketing brochure, you can contact the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing for legal images that can be opened and manipulated in Photoshop CS. (You can visit them at www.moneyfactory.com.) Similar solutions should be available in other countries. If you find that your central bank is not providing adequate support to permit legal uses of their banknote images, then you should let them know.

3. Adobe's intentions: Please be assured that this implementation of CDS is not a step down the road towards Adobe becoming "Big Brother." We know that one of the reasons people love Photoshop is because it's an incredibly flexible tool that can be used for so many different things. That's also one of the reasons we at Adobe enjoy working on new versions. Finding ways to prevent you from doing things in Photoshop really doesn't interest us! Moreover, the CDS is not Adobe technology, but was provided by the central banks, who would have no reason to want to restrict anything other than bank notes. Counterfeiting is really a special case in which we could see how our own technology advances were making it easier to commit crimes and we were asked to implement a solution that would have minimal impact on honest customers. Yes, there is some impact, in that you need to contact your central bank for images, but our hope is that it's not a huge inconvenience for that small group of customers who do need to reproduce these images in their graphic design work. It also provides the central banks with an opportunity to better educate customers on exactly what is and isn't legal usage.

Of course, CDS in Photoshop CS is essentially a 1.0 implementation of a feature, analogous to the state of the layers palette in Photoshop 3.0. We realize that there may be room for improvement, particularly if there are corner usage cases that weren't taken into account in our current designs. We do want to hear about your concerns, and we definitely want to hear if there's a specific problem that this implementation has created for you. As with any Photoshop feature, we depend on hearing from customers so that we can make continual improvements release after release.

---

J. Stuart J.

[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 01-09-2004).]

Why should they have to tell you that they have built a program that isn't going to let you do something that is illegal? Locations that advertise their alarm systems do so as a deterrant, not a public service. They aren't required to post any notification at all (provided there aren't guard dogs or something). Seems like the same situation to me.

Ramasax - Dude... I was looking at your Q-bert sig and it took real effort to look away... it is hypnotizing or something.

GrythusDraconis: You forget that it is illegal only under certain circumstances and not in every countries. Obviously the reproduction of banknotes is subject to some rules ( i.e. see those for the Euro banknotes ), but it's not strictly forbidden. Usually the rules around the reproduction of banknotes are about the size of the reproduction themselves and the mention that it's not a real banknote so nobody could be fooled. Thus I think the CDS in Photoshop CS should be mentionned in its disclaimer. At least CDS in color copiers are mentionned in their disclaimers.



[This message has been edited by poi (edited 01-21-2004).]

If you were that hard up couldn't you just take a high res photo of the cash?

:::11oh1:::

krets: I don't have a digital camera to test, but I suppose the CDS is based on the image itself whatever are its format / resolution / source. I wonder, if it's possible to fool the CDS by scanning/importing the banknote in several times thanks to a mask, or if it's possible to scan a banknote if you put a transparent with something big enough on it ( like the "specimen" word as specified in the link I gave above ).

I've had to take pictures of banknotes only once at work, but it'd have been a pain to have a delay to get the pictures. So the CDS do not really annoy me, but I doubt it'll have a real effect on counterfeiters.



[This message has been edited by poi (edited 01-21-2004).]

Or just don't upgrade to Photoshop CS and throw away your 6/7.

This will stop counterfitters just as well as serial numbers have stopped software pirtates.


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...

just read an article on wired news about this and thought i'd drop the link in for what it's worth.
Copy No, No: Adobe and Uncle Sam