Participant

Question

Why does Adobe promote plagiarism?

Forum|Forum|2 days ago
August 31, 2026
5 replies
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Acrobat create a document based on someone else’s document. Why do you allow this?

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Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Ideally, the summary should include something like “Summarized from [Document Names] on [date]”. (The AI report has that information, but not the summary itself which can be copied.) If it is deleted, that is on the user as Amal stated.

Also, many things cannot be copyrighted, including government reports (in USA), raw data and facts*, and procedures. Creating a summary would not be an issue with those documents.

*The expression of those facts can be protected, but not the facts themselves.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

D

determined_photoe7faAuthor

Participant

Yes, many things cannot be copyrighted, but Adobe makes it all too easy to simply click and rip-off someone’s work!

Did you read my post which went into the details of the problem?

If someone opens your pdf in Acrobat, one click can create a summary; the problem is that, at the end of the summary, the AI offers to create an original document based on YOUR document! It can also “brainstorm” ideas to improve the document, making it easier to read for the layman, presenting examples, etc.

It’s probably not a bad tool if used by the original author, but it can be used by anybody to rip-off anything.

D

determined_photoe7faAuthor

Participant

Sigh. The method of creating a “post” here is so horrible! Allow me to clarify the above…

A lot of people are too lazy to read/think for themselves nowadays, so they use AI to “summarise”. The impact of this aside, I’m disgusted that Adobe Acrobat offers the reader the option to “Create a unique XXX” based on the content it just summarised.

This essentially allows anyone to rip-off the work of another - screw trade secrets, IPs, the ingenuity and effort of the original author! Whoever happens to snag a copy of the document can now put their own spin on it, presenting it as “original”.

Quite handy for business competitors - especially given how the research and creation of the original document can take months of hard work… and the competitor gets to rip-it off in seconds!

My absolute disgust cannot be put into words - despite making an account here to do just that!

I really feel like Adobe should be fined for this type of behaviour.

Amal Jaiswal

Community Manager

Hi @determined_photoe7fa

Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the frustration here.

Which exact feature are you referring to? "Create a unique XXX" isn't a label I recognize directly, so it'd help to know if you mean a specific AI Assistant option in Acrobat (for example, a rewrite, summary, or content generation button) and roughly where in the app you're seeing it, so any answer actually matches what you're looking at.

Adobe's generative AI terms place responsibility for what's submitted or generated on the person using the feature, not on Adobe. The terms specifically say that input must not be used to generate Output that is substantially similar to someone else's copyrighted work unless the user has the rights to it. You can read the actual terms here: https://adobe.ly/4ceNWGg , and Acrobat's own AI usage disclosures here: Generative AI content usage FAQ, Acrobat

So the tool itself isn't positioned as a free pass; the terms place that obligation on whoever uses it. That said, if your concern is really about the feature's design enabling misuse regardless of the terms, please share your feedback directly with the product team here https://adobe.ly/4gtWHyK

Hope this information will help

~Amal

D

determined_photoe7faAuthor

Participant

I hope you’re joking.

You present an option to blatantly steal someone else’s work… but then put the blame for such plagiarism solely on the person who clicks the button to rip-off the said work?!

Also, “Create a unique XXX” is - you’re right - not an option. So let’s conjure up a fictitious example:

You spend months creating a business proposal that’s highly original and breaks the 4th wall. You’re proud of it and you know you can sell your company better now because of it.
You show it to a trusted ex-colleague, hoping he’ll join you in your endeavour.
This dude opens it on a shared office desktop, wants to skim, so clicks, “summarise”. He reads it and gets a call, so goes out.
His boss sees the desktop left on… Hmm, what was Bob up to…? The boss then reads the summary, loves the idea, clicks the Create new business proposal based on YOUR business proposal, cut and pastes the text and sends it to a secretary.
The secretary puts the text into a PowerPoint presentation.
The next morning, the boss strolls into a share-holder meeting with YOUR proposal, reworked by Acrobat’s AI, sells the idea and, knowing they have to rush it out before you show Your original proposal around, they beat you to the punch.
Effortlessly.

You might argue some things can’t be copyrighted - not the ingenuity of your proposal to take a stale business model into a bold new direction - but C’MON!

Another example would simply be that you send your proposal out to an investor, he already has stakes in a competitor, reworks the document with a few clicks and presents it to them. The proposal came from an outside source and the competitor is innocent… but the investor makes BANK!

I’m sure you can see how having THIS OPTION IS PLAIN SCUMMY.

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