Government Trojan Horse in Adobe Photoshop

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1073862608327&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

WASHINGTON—Adobe Systems Inc. acknowledged it quietly added technology to the world's best-known graphics software at the request of government regulators and international bankers to prevent consumers from making copies of the world's major currencies.

The unusual concession has angered scores of customers.

Adobe, the world's leading vendor for graphics software, said the secretive technology "would have minimal impact on honest customers." It generates a warning message when someone tries to make digital copies of some currencies.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and other organizations that worked on the technology said they could not disclose how it works and would not name which other software companies include it in their products. They cited concerns that counterfeiters would try to defeat it.

"We sort of knew this would come out eventually," Adobe spokesperson Russell Brady said last week. "We can't really talk about the technology itself."

...

Does it matter? Soon enough the dollar won't be worth the ink in your printer cartridge!

[AndyTiedye]

1. Who Would Use Photoshop Just To Make a Copy

You'd use it to make something like a $3 bill with Bush* on it.

[baldguy]

2. No, it doesn't matter.

Some enterprising hacker will crack the "secretive" code inside six months.

[n0_data]

4. Six months?

Meh. I give it a couple of weeks, if that. Odds are it's been cracked already -- the currency thingy, not the actual software protections, which was probably cracked when it was released on the warez scene months before the product appeared on store shelves (I'm speculating here, as this is fairly common).

"We can't really talk about the technology itself."

Ohhh, how spooky. Even though crackers could probably care less about this feature, give them a challenge and they'll be falling all over themselves to be the 'first' to break it.

I don't advocate piracy at all. I respect the hard work that programmers do, but these protection mechanisms (especially on games) are just ridiculous. They do jack shit to prevent piracy, and usually only succeed in inconveniencing legitimate users (prime example: Turbotax..or any modern PC game).

It's to the point where they (software protections) don't even stop casual copying anymore -- which is the stated intention. This stuff moved from the underground to the mainstream long ago.

Sorry, I've gone horribly off-topic, but this crap irks me to no end. I just want to play the damn game, not dig through a pile CD's to find the one that allows me to proceed. Gamecopyworld, here I come.

[MadHound]

3. This won't help

Gee, don't you think these people are bright enough to A) Crack this little addition or B) Go back to using Photoshop 4.0?

Sorry, but counterfeiting tech will always be one step ahead of law enforcement.