I recently bought a license for PaintShop Pro, as I really don’t have the patience to fight with the Gimp (sorry Donncha!)
I’m not a graphic artist, but being able to do some simple editing of images is handy for customising blog templates etc.,
This evening I wanted to change the header images on monetise.it, as I was still using the default ones. PaintShop Pro wouldn’t let me! As I had chosen to use images of bank notes it simply refused to edit them and directed me to RulesForUse. I wouldn’t have been bothered if it had simply warned me about potential issues, but blocking me completely is a bit nuts. (It also begs the question – what other types of images don’t they want you to edit? If I try editing a hardcore porn photo will I be sent to the Vatican’s official website?)
I ended up using the Gimp to do the resizing, but that’s hardly the point.
I’m amazed and a little annoyed.
I wasn’t trying to commit fraud and you’d have to be really dumb to possibly confuse the images in the blog header with real bank notes.
Overly Legal Software?
So did PaintShop Pro recognise the bank notes by visual recognition, if so that is a scary kind of censorship. The software shouldn’t stop you from editing any images, that’s not it’s position.
As for the Gimp I never really bothered using it enough to feel comfortable with it.
After using Photoshop for so long everything is second nature whereas I never felt the Gimp was ready for replacing Photoshop.
David
It must be using some form of visual recognition, as the filename was completely random.
Michele
It seems Photoshop CS has this aswell.
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/08/0111228.shtml
Charming 🙂
I’d really love to know what else they are blocking
Heh – i got this too when i first got my new scanner and started scanning in everyting at mad DPI.
US dollars are not recognised, £ sterling and € are.
The lines on the Drivers licence (the box border thing) is actually text. neat huh ?
I had heard that Photoshop stopped you editing bank notes but I didn’t realise it was so pervasive. Score one for Free Software eh? I forgot to talk to you at the last BarCamp about the GIMP, oops!
GaryB – what were you trying to do with the driving licenses? 🙂
Donncha – If only the Gimp had a sane UI 🙂
Try GIMPShop, Michele. It reorders the GIMP UI into a PS like UI. It isn’t perfect but it is a lot better than normal GIMP.
As for the bank note issue; crikey. That is worrying. I remember in school doing projects on currencies and having to use image editors to layout notes for my page.
Paul
I’ve been trying GimpShop. It is marginally better, though it’s still not as easy to manipulate as PaintShop Pro, which is why I forked out for the license the other day 🙂
Michele
It does it based on something called the EURion constellation. You can scan and edit sections of notes or at a heavily reduced resolution, but it stops you grabbing the whole note.
In fairness though, the reason why notes have this feature is that it’s rather easy to get your hands on high-quality printers that, given the right type of paper, can print notes indistinguishable from the real thing.
Keith
The stock image I was trying to use was that – a stock image. It wasn’t high resolution, unless they’ve redefined that to include 72 DPI
Michele
I think the problem is that by allowing this one case other groups can pressurise technology companies into crippling their software further. Next book publishers will insist on images being checked against a book database or photographic publishers will insist on images being checked for royalty infringements and so on.
Got to be careful about setting precedents.