As the state of technology gets worse and worse, observations by two dissident influencers become more and more relevant. The first is the Z Man, proprietor of the Z Blog, who has pointed out that if you don’t know what a tech company’s product is, then you are the product. Dovetailing with that remark, black pilled video blogger Devon Stack recently riffed on Steve Jobs, saying that in monopolistic markets, it’s not the people who come up with the best products, but the slickest marketers, who thrive.
Both statements have allegedly received fresh evidence, as some in the tech industry fear that Adobe’s new TOS makes you the product.
Earlier this week, Photoshop and Substance 3D developer Adobe found itself engulfed in a massive controversy after the community noticed changes to the company’s General Terms of Use, which now force the users of Adobe products to provide the company with unlimited access to their projects, yes, all of the projects, including those that might be under the NDA, for “content review” and other purposes.
Here’s the new TOS.
Related: The Internet of Shit
That Thumb Mike on X
According to Adobe’s new spyware-esque TOS, the company can access and view your creations through both automated and manual methods and even analyze your work using techniques such as machine learning. This has led many to believe that the company intends to use all user-generated content to train its AI models – a suspicion that aligns with Adobe’s recent focus on generative artificial intelligence.
An Adobe representative took to X in an effort to perform some damage control. Legendary WoW dev Mark Kern responded with a reasonable-sounding proposal to set users at ease.
Related: The Internet Is Still Dead
So did Adobe try to pull a PayPal on its users, get caught, and hastily walk their skulduggery back?
According to their content analysis FAQ, Adobe is only accessing user-generated material stored on their cloud servers. And users who object to Adobe’s use of their IP can opt out. The only exception, the company says, is content explicitly submitted to them for publication.
Time for the standard legal disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and nothing I say should be taken as legal advice.
That said, I deal with IP contracts all the time and have done so for years.
In my informed—but not expert—opinion, Adobe’s new TOS seems just this side of tolerable for now. But it contains major red flags for the probable near future.
First, and most obvious, Adobe’s TOS includes a clause wherein you grant them a worldwide, royalty-free license to use your IP. Their clarification that such use is for extremely limited purposes comes off as a smokescreen. Under US copyright law, the creator of a given intellectual property owns it and the entire bundle of rights that come into being along with it the moment he creates it. That’s why Adobe’s TOS has to include a license grant.
For some direct context, I’ve used Photoshop to make some of my book covers. If I agreed to their new TOS, I’d be granting Adobe a license to use my book cover for the purposes they stipulate if I:
- Save the image to their cloud, and
- forget to opt out.
And since I now know that taking those two steps would let Adobe use my IP in any way without compensating me, you can be sure I’ll avoid it like the plague.
In fact, I’m going to stop using Adobe products covered by this TOS as much as possible.
Because I’m running a business, and I don’t care who you are; you don’t get to use my IP in any fashion without providing me some consideration. Failing to enforce that caveat would be professiojnal negligence on my part.
That’s why accessing cloud users’ IP by default and making them opt out is the scummiest part of the new TOS. If they didn’t want to draw suspicion, Adobe should respect users’ IP by default, ask if they can use it, and then give those who say yes the chance to opt in.
And let’s not kid ourselves. The “We only use IP without compensation if it’s stored in the cloud” line rings hollow.
Because unless you’re reading this in Netscape Navigator on a i486 running Windows 95, you’re aware of the trend sweeping Big Tech of moving users from running software locally to cloud-based services.
It doesn’t take Nostradamus to foresee a near-future in which all Adobe customers have to use their cloud storage. It would be pretty easy for the company to remove users’ ability to opt out of the license grant at that point.
Not saying they will, just that it would be easy.
Do what you want, but I’m not trusting any Big Tech firm to resist that kind of temptation.
Just get informed. before Adobe’s new TOS makes you the product.
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This would be a good time to mention to anyone who uses these services that they need to move over to Freeware alternatives. For instance, I’ve been using Inkscape for both making my covers and constructing stupid memes for many years and have no complaints with it. Others prefer programs like GIMP and Paint.net are also well liked options for those who want to be more involved.
On the other hand, for some unfathomable reason, there are writers and authors who still use Microsoft Word instead of also switching to many of the other Freeware options that exist out there. I use LibreOffice, and not only is it much easier and user-friendly than MS Word to use, it also makes creating paperback and ebook versions of your final drafts much easier than that crusty old program too.
Basically, get off these mainstream cloud-based services run by these globo corpos. You have absolutely no reason to keep using them, especially if you’re a creative. There are far too many superior options at this point to not just learn to adjust to something much better.
The Burned Book is the first novel I’ve written entirely with LibreOffice Writer. So fingers crossed.
Once you get used to how the the “Styles” simply translate to “New section breaks specifically for changing the page formatting” the rest of it falls in line pretty quickly.
One of the artists I follow retweeted this and made an important point people might overlook unless they’re professionals. This TOS is a potential (I think likely) break of NDAs. Adobe now has access to any and all creative works that are supposed to be kept private from prying eyes as per legal contract. What’s to stop some nerd in Adobe from accessing those files and leaking them to the public? Guess who isn’t going to get the blame for those leaks? The security of all creative projects is now in jeopardy.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if Adobe didn’t have a near monopoly on the industry. Adobe is still the standard in the creative industry regardless of people’s subjective opinions about it. It’s expected you know their software if you hope to be employed. Non professionals think it’s as easy as “building your own software” and “giving up working in the industry”. Not everyone can do that. Adobe’s power and influence allows them to get away with this. They are just a few words away from saying “your art is not your own”.
I think artists will be the next major sociological group to break and start fighting to reclaim the industry they love like gamers are starting to do now. Adobe might be that final crack that breaks the dam.
RT this post later on today with a graphic of Adobe alternatives for you and your readers.
*I will RT this post later on today with a graphic of Adobe alternatives for you and your readers.
Much appreciated.
In the indie comic circles I run in, Photoshop is anathema because of the subscription. You either “privateer” an old version that didn’t have the sub, or you use Clip Studio Paint (if you can get it without a sub, I’m not sure anymore) or Krita, or any number of other cheap or free programs. I personally dumped Photoshop a few years ago when Adobe was threatening to sue people using older versions. The stench is not new, it’s just gotten more putrid.
CSP allows the purchase of a lifetime license still. I recently looked into it. The Basic version is dirt cheap while the pro version is only a couple hundred bucks – but that’s if you want the animation features.
Oh good! I wasn’t sure if I could recommend it anymore. The cheap version has the animation tools, too, because I’ve been doing tutorials to learn them. (Clip goes on sale for 25 bucks in June and December, or it used to. Worth a look if you’re in the market! It does everything Photoshop does with the exception of some of the text tools, oddly enough.)
I didn’t know they had sales like that in June! I’m in the market to upgrade from Krita. In part because there’s a lot of resources dedicated to it and I’ve seen some pro animation jobs out there which ask for knowledge in using the program.
It seems like an OK program that I could get used to. I’d need a good weekend to get things set up the way I like them.
If you’re not purchasing something, then you’re the product.
That’s well and good.
The problem is when you purchase things, and you (or your work) is still the product anyway.
With how things have progressed, bumper sticker slogans just don’t cut it anymore to truly define the situation or solutions. It’s not so black and white or cleverly simple.
It’s bad enough that the economy is tanking due to inflation, but now we are seeing the ‘economy of trust’ bankrupt itself at an alarming rate.
If its just about stuff people are dumb enough to store on their cloud server they should specify that. I haven’t used Photoshop since 2005 because GIMP meets all my needs and I hate cloud.
Talk about history rhyming! This has me thinking of the Stationers’ Company in 17th Century England.
Serif/Affinity is a solid set of three (photo editing, page layout, and graphic design) programs, or purchase all three in a bundle. Lifetime license for the suite, and they have regular sales. One removes your need for Adobe Reader Pro and InDesign. Good riddance. Look for sales as low as $99 for the suite.
Same is true for Clip Studio Paint. They have roughly 4 sales per year and you get the Pro version for about $40. The longtime underdog, CorelDRAW, is still available for lifetime purchase & local install as well. Bitmap and vector editing, as well as other utility programs such as bitmap tracing. Been using it since version 3.0.
Open Source side: Krita and GIMP for photo or graphics editing, and Krita is popular with comic creators who want to use OS tools. Not quite up to Photoshop levels, but it won’t hold your data hostage. Inkscape is a solid vector graphics creation and editing tool to replace Illustrator.
Remember: “Life is Better Without Adobe.”
Many thanks!