Photojacked, Why Creators Need To Boycott Adobe Photoshop - US Government Sues Adobe
Adobe, the software company behind Photoshop, enraged artists and creatives everywhere with their new terms of service earlier this June. All users of Adobe products were forced to accept the terms before they could do anything - even uninstalling the program.
The new terms implied that Adobe would scan users content at any time, using AI. It also gave Adobe a complete license to use the content users created, sharing it and selling it to whomever they wanted.
Despite the public backlash, Adobe doubled down by clarifying the terms on a June 10th blog post. The post emphasized that ‘You own your content’, even though Adobe had a extremely permissible license to the content. They also promised not to train ‘Generative AI’ on customer content, and that the licenses would be ‘narrowly tailored to the activities needed’.
US Department of Justice Sues Adobe
Trusting a big tech company with your private data is like putting your head in the mouth of an crocodile.
After all, this is exactly the path that Meta took when it updated its General AI terms to allow for the use of photos and comments to train its AI models, such as the Meta Llama 3. That means your personal pictures train Meta’s AI. This model is now integrated into Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger, and is nearly impossible to opt-out of.
Only people living in the EU could opt-out under the GDPR, but Meta has previously used dark patterns in their apps to prevent users from leaving easily. This includes re-directions, long confusing legal text, having to explain yourself, and provide additional information. It appears that they’re trying to directly obfuscate legal language by using fancy jargon—making it extremely difficult to withdraw consent.
This type of behavior is normal with companies like Meta and Adobe. This past week Adobe was sued by the US Department of Justice for making it difficult for people to cancel their paid subscriptions. A year long investigation uncovered deceptive business practices that hid information about a huge cancellation fee (50% of the remaining subscription cost) when signing up, creating more obstacles for users through the cancellation process.
Users of Adobe products are in a difficult spot. They’ve built their whole careers around a single software suite which is now being used as leverage to get them to comply with endless demands.
Solutions
This wouldn’t be a #TBOT article without solutions. There are many photo editors and creative tools on Linux.
Here’s a list of software and resources you can use instead of relying on Adobe:
GIMP (Photo / Bitmap Editing) GIMP Books
Krita (Digital Illustration)
Inkscape (Vector Illustration)
KolourPaint (Simpler ‘Paint’ like editing)
DarkTable (Photo Editing)
You can also cancel your Adobe subscription while avoiding the 50% cancellation fee. No joke.
Go to ‘cancel your subscription’. You will see a screen with the cancellation fee. Hit the continue button.
They will offer you a new plan to avoid the cancellation fee. Choose the cheapest one to switch to a new plan.
Here's the loophole: You can cancel any plan for free within two weeks. Cancel the new plan within this period and get your money back for the first month of the new plan.
You've now successfully avoided the fee.
Users who are invested in the Adobe ecosystem struggle to see how they can replace the hydra of Adobe applications. We’re not sure of the right answer either, but at some point Adobe users will have to decide what bursts the abusive software dam.
Until then we can wait for the Adobe terms of service update that comes with an additional cherry-on-top and pinky promise that they won’t train their AI on your photos.
Further Reading
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/17/24180196/adobe-us-ftc-doj-sues-subscriptions-cancel
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40607442&p=2
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/06/06/clarification-adobe-terms-of-use
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/06/10/updating-adobes-terms-of-use
https://x.com/SamSantala/status/1798292952219091042/
https://x.com/Stretchedwiener/status/1798153619285708909
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