Deeply concerned over new terms of service agreement

[ckuehne]

I was seeing that people were launching Photoshop and seeing an agreement they had to accept in order to launch it, and it sounded like anything at all being created or altered in Photoshop could be used by Adobe in any way they want. I did not see this same thing pop-up in After Effects, this morning. Does anyone know if this is being planned for After Effects as well? My concern is that clients will not allow me to use After Effects, at all, if any footage I use in it is being sent to Adobe to be used however they like.

[ricardoh50108263]

There's at least a couple I have seen, but probably this is one of the opt-out links.  This has instructions on the issue. Note that it does mention peopel were deafulted-opt in.

https://www.imore.com/apps/drawing-apps/why-you-should-turn-off-content-analysis-in-adobe-creative-c...

[ricardoh50108263]

And this is the direct link to the account settings, where you can turn that setting off.

https://account.adobe.com/privacy

Saw this from yet another article, that highlighted this change was done sometime in Aug 2022 by Adobe apparently.

https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2023/01/09/adobe-train-algorithms-your-work-opt-out/

[kglad]

@ricardoh50108263 

thank you for that account link.

[Abambo]

Adobe is forcing Ai on us as users, and making it more difficult to opt-out, if we can even do that at all. 

By @EasterlyArt

Great! But I remember times when there was no talk about AI, but quite the same complaints. That was 30 years ago. Please contact your lawyer to explain you the new terms and the difference to the old terms. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Everyone please read this update from Scott Belsky. More to come. Adobe is listening.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/06/10/updating-adobes-terms-of-use

[Abambo]

Appreciate you sharing this link*. Concerning though it doesn't seem to work on certain parts of Facebook, with comments made "pending" for no reason.  Can't even make a short URL for it... hmm... 🤔

By @EasterlyArt

OMG! 

There are 3 explanations for this:

1. Either the Marsians took over.
2. Adobe secretly controls Facebook.
3. You did a mistake.

I tend to the first, as all other possibilities are highly improbable.

[michael38095599lt9z]

Honest anyone defending this obviously works for them or has shares, i read the terms and conditions. yes you can opt out but is very easy to fall into the trap. if you don't read the TC. they own your work. Thats not OK that is wrong and this should be changed SIMPLE. since I'm required to slightly change this reponce here is the update. you are misleading people so they don't look too deep into the TC. adobe is looking to take peoples IP by misleading TC for example subscriptions, AI credits,  uploading to the cloud or even using fatures they push without clearly stating what will happen if you use it. this shouldn't be the case this is wrong and you are misleading people whos work is everything to them. espesically privacy.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@michael38095599lt9z asking an honest question so please consider before you reply - how do you expect a cloud storage service to store files, allow users to share with other users, download assets in various formats (jpg, pdf, etc) or share with users in different languages if they dont have access to your files to do so?

[Abambo]

Honest anyone defending this obviously works for them or has shares,

By @michael38095599lt9z

Any Adobe employee posting here is marked as Adobe employee. All others are not employees. If they have shares or not, that I do not know. I don't have shares in any company. I may have invested in financial products that are invested in Adobe, however. 

Fact is: if you do not use cloud storage or send them data they do not access your data. If you share data with them, they use that data to do what the purpose of that share is, or for fulfilling their legal obligations. They do not claim ownership to your data.

The opt-in is for sending usage data "to improve products or services" to Adobe. That is neither new nor is it automatically an opt-in where you need to opt-out. A lot of software companies do ask that and I usually deny this. I agree that this questioning is sometimes annoying, but Adobe is rather reserved here when I compare it with Microsoft, or other companies.

[StevenTheGeek]

Im just gonna add this for the Americans, default opt-in is borderline criminal in 2024, it only ends up with massive EU fines of hundreds of millions. Its bad publicity, bad for product & a big gamble for a company. They have to hope that the payout of the gain beats the fine. I laugh when people mention TOS, the TOS is mostly useless if you are an international company. Remember the fines also come with an eventual revocation of the opt-in so any usage can be reveresed and further charges imposed. If you run an online business in any country, do not do default Opt-in to anything ever.

[ricardoh50108263]

To be fair and to be specific- we would have to see what are the "TOS" for the EU.  I am not saying I know, or saying it's ok or not, but we would have to see what exactly Adobe does for EU for customers there- or at least verify they are claiming the same things or not.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Adobe has posted updated Terms with explainers:

https://www.adobe.com/legal/terms.html

and responses from an interview with Scott Belsky:

https://petapixel.com/2024/06/18/adobes-terms-of-use-controversy-provided-an-opportunity-to-improve/

[sashasashasasha]

Adobe is  requiring users to agree to the new terms in order to continue using their Adobe apps, locking them out until we accept new terms such as

• Solely for the purposes of operating or improving the Services and Software, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free sublicensable, license, to use, reproduce, publicly display, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, and translate the Content. For example, we may sublicense our right to the Content to our service providers or to other users to allow the Services and Software to operate with others, such as enabling you to share photos

The organization I work for, like so many others, has contractual obligations to not share proprietary work, documents, imagery, licensed-likeness, and is under NDA to keep various client initiatives private.

How are other users of Adobe products handling this change? What are your legal departments recommending?

[Gurdeep.Singh]

Hi @sashasashasasha 

I hope you are doing well.

For clarification on Adobe’s terms of use agreement, please visit: Adobe Blog Terms of Use.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@sashasashasasha its a big bag of nothing. The terms did not update - they've been in place since 2013/Creative Cloud launch.

The boiler plate content you point out is standard for any cloud service provider. Without this clause Adobe could not produce thumbnails, convert your file for export (to jpg, pdf, etc) or allow sharing between users.

[Keith Wing]

So files that I edit with Adobe software on my local machine are not and cannot be viewed by Adobe and they do not have any rights to them correct???

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Keith Wing correct. This all has to do with the cloud services - they need rights to review and audit usage and violations of terms or illegal usage. Every cloud based company has almost the exact same wording.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Everyone please read this update from Scott Belsky. More to come. Adobe is listening.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/06/10/updating-adobes-terms-of-use

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Adobe has posted updated Terms with explainers:

https://www.adobe.com/legal/terms.html

and responses from an interview with Scott Belsky:

https://petapixel.com/2024/06/18/adobes-terms-of-use-controversy-provided-an-opportunity-to-improve/

[Marc38165580jeqt]

Adobe does not own my data and does not have police powers .

I reject the most current License agreement. I reject that Adobe is taking police powers in its own hands.

I reject that Adobe takes the right to steal my data.

[michael38095599lt9z]

Honest anyone defending this obviously works for them or has shares, i read the terms and conditions. yes you can opt out but is very easy to fall into the trap. if you don't read the TC. they own your work. Thats not OK that is wrong and this should be changed SIMPLE.

[kglad]

duplicate 

[daveysheps]

This post refers to the new ToS that appeared after opening After Effects this morning, but posting to Prem Pro as i assume it covers all Creative Cloud and Premiere Pro is my most used software. 

The new Terms of Service are presumably due to AI generative features. But it says that Adobe may "access, view or listen to your Content". 'Content' is defined as: "any text..., audio files, video files, electronic document or images, that you upload, import into, embed for use by, or create using the Services and Software". 

This means that Adobe can look at anything you are currently working on. That's bad on a personal level. But professionally it's a nightmare – I'm a professional editor and I very regularly have to sign NDAs before a job.

And now, anyone who signs an NDA before a job won't be able to use Adobe software on that job. Adobe - are you trying to lose all your professional user base?? Please let me know what you expect professionals such as myself to do in these situations. 

And if anyone else has any advice, i'd love to hear it! 

Thanks in advance 

[John T Smith]

I will GUESS that Adobe is referring to files stored in the Adobe cloud... not files that are ONLY on your computer's drive

IF that is the case, you will need to share files with clients using a different cloud service

[daveysheps]

Thank you for reading and replying. Unfortunatley I'm not a lawyer, but the (shortened) Adobe definition of 'Content' says: "any text, audio files, video files, electronic document or images, that you IMPORT INTO THE SOFTWARE" 

this is edited down (please see screenshots attached above) and the caps were added by me, but this (worryingly) sounds like local files to me... I do hope i'm wrong.