Archive for the Found on the Web Category

March 31st, 2008

Photoshop Express

Filed under: Found on the Web — jasonlevine @ 7:55 am

By now you’ve probably heard about Photoshop Express.  While it might sound nice in concept, being able to use “Photoshop” online for free, for now I’m recommending that everyone steer clear of it.  The problem is not in the features of the tool, but in the Terms of Service.  Right now, they state:

Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

So basically, if you upload a photo and share it out to show to friends and family, Adobe could take your photo, use it in advertisements, use it in posters, and sell it to third parties to use for pretty much anything.  Meanwhile, you not only wouldn’t see a penny from this use, but you couldn’t even take the photo offline to revoke their rights to do this.  (Notice that it is a “perpetual, irrevocable” license that you are granting them.)

Adobe has stated that this Terms of Service clause wasn’t meant to imply what people are taking it to mean and they will revise it to be clearer.  When they do that, I might or might not be willing to use the service.  However, until they do so, I don’t plan on letting my images get anywhere near it and I recommend that you don’t either.

1 Comment

  1. Comment by Spyder — April 9, 2008 @ 7:44 pm

    Yes, I noticed that clause and did not want to touch it. I hope people really read their Terms of Service and take notice before using Photoshop Express.

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