Photoshop Express Terms of Use Cause Stir, Will Be Revised

Earlier this week, we discussed Adobe's beta launch of Photoshop Express, a free, online version of the popular image editing software. However, as a number of readers pointed out, the terms of use included language which granted Adobe a wide range of rights to any photos that were made available on the site. Now, after receiving a great deal of feedback from potential users, Adobe has stated their intent to rewrite the terms of use, as Ars Technica reports. David Morgenstern of ZDNet also notes the impending change, and briefly discusses the privacy and ownership concerns involved with content you post online.

Adobe's other EULAs don't make sense either

[proxima]

Anyone who chooses to upload anything to a public forum/gallery should be aware that some of these websites will claim the right to do whatever they want with that material. Back in 2003, I even stayed at a hotel where the internet access had such a clause; they claimed the right to reproduce whatever you uploaded through the system. How enforceable are such terms? I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think we've seen a sufficient number of court cases come out of license agreements like these.

Adobe's not exactly known for their reasonable EULAs. Just take a look at the EULA for Adobe Reader [adobe.com]. This is software that Adobe is trying to get on all the computers it can. The license, however, permits only the installation on one primary computer and one mobile computer (note that "Permitted Number" is 1). I've gone so far as to contact Adobe customer service and ask them what's going on - this goes completely against their marketing policy. Amusingly, they send all their customer service responses via PDF over email. Their official response?

With regard to installing the software on more than two computers and
its use at the same time. I need to inform you that although Adobe
Reader is a free software, Adobe maintains its distribution rights.
Thus, as per Adobe policy there is no provision to use the software on
more than two computers simultaneously.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

Please note that, single-user Adobe branded product that is installed on
a computer at home, you can also install and use the software on one
secondary computer of the same platform at office or on a portable
computer. However, you may not run the software simultaneously on both
the primary and secondary computers.

It's clear that Adobe has no intention to actually try to enforce this restriction, but it suggests that organizations with computer labs and such are supposed to negotiate a volume license with Adobe. I think the Reader license is simply boilerplate recycled from other Adobe software, but it's clear that whoever is responsible for Adobe's licenses isn't in touch with what Adobe actually wants to have regarding its licensing (at least from a marketing perspective).

Photoshop.. slightly off topic

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just curious as to why they call it Photoshop Express, it doesn't really have anything in common with Photoshop at all. It's more like Adobe's mixing iPhoto + ImageShack.

Re:Network Freedom.

[MrNaz]

I think that this is a foreshadowing of things to come. This is an indication of big corporates' desire to gain control or influence over not only the software that we use by turning into a subscription model (SaaS or whatever buzzword/buzzacro it is) but also ensuring that whatever we create using it is controllable by the providers of the software.

Taking this to its logical conclusion, SaaS providers such as Google may decide that they will muscle in on user data created using Google Apps with copyright tricks like this.

Just because the first attempt resulted in a big company backing down does not mean the heat in the pot hasn't risen a few degrees for the proverbial frog.

Moderators: Please note

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you granting mod points to twitter (who now has five different accounts with which he posts to Slashdot, happily gaming the system), this [slashdot.org] is what he was posting earlier today.

Please don't reward this unhelpful type of "advocacy" in any way.

Re:Just use the GIMP

[Jarjarthejedi]

Photoshop is much easier to use. I say this as a person who desperately wanted to drop photoshop in favor of the GIMP. I still have it installed, but for a hundred small reasons I can't come up with offhand it simply is not as easy to use. It's the standard problem with open source really, I'm sure there's a ton of features that surpass photoshop hiding somewhere in the GIMP, and that it's every bit as powerful. I don't have the hours necessary to adapt and discover those things, however, when I can just as easily use photoshop.

Google Terms - No Better than Photoshop Express?

[rwmille]

Is this any better than what Adobe just got caught doing? So basically any email or attachment I send though Gmail can be used by Google? Google Terms of Service http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en [google.com] "11.1 . . . By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services."