Editorial and Education vs. Commercial in Photoshop Beta

Report · Aug 18, 2023

There's lots of talk on the forum about the "commerical" use of Photoshop Generative (Beta) which is currently prohibited.

My questions is does "editorial" and "education" use fall under this current prohibition?

Under copyright law, education and editorial are not considered commercial. So how is Adobe interpreting commercial use? Can a Photoshop Beta user use the work they create in the Beta for education and editorial purposes.

And if not, then I am curious how anyone is allowed to even write and publish samples about Photoshop's Generative AI feature (editorial) or publish instructions about how to use it (educational) without being subject to a lawsuit.

Just curious.

Report · Sep 05, 2023

Im not a lawyer but my understanding is simple - are you making any money off your AI generated images? If the answer is yes, then that is commercial. Educational text (not for sale) and Editorial are not considered commercial generally.

Report · Sep 05, 2023

Thanks for your response Kevin.

I've communicated directly with an Adobe employee about this but it seems Adobe does not want to answer this question with a direct and specific answer. It seems they want to leave it in the rather vague "personal and not commercial" use language.

But to be fair, Microsoft has taken the same position with the Bing AI Image Creator.

My guess is these corporations are trying to be as vague as they can while they are trying to figure out how they are going to work these technologies into their business models. And I can't blame them for that regardless how frustrating it is to not be able to get a direct and specific answer to the question of whether Adobe considers editorial and education use of their AI generated images as "commercial."

But having both trademarks and copyrights myself, and considering how many individuals are using Adobe and Microsoft AI generated images in publications with ads (which is a commercial use) and also paying writers to write the articles (which is a commerical use) I am proceeding under the assumption (my bad?) that both editorial and education are considered "non-commercial" as is generally defined under trademark guidelines. Otherwise Adobe wouldn't allow Adobe AI generated images in those commerical publications (i.e. publications with ads) and they wouldn't allow writers to write articles about Adobe AI generated images using Adobe AI generated images, since that would also be a "commerical" use of Adobe AI generated images.

And I have see A LOT of articles about Adobe AI generated images in "commercial" publications that are using Adobe AI generated images in the articles.

But as everything else in this fast moving world of new technology, I think we will soon find out what the reality is.

But it would be nice if both Adobe and Microsoft would craft a more difinitive definition of "commercial" use instead of playing that game of hiding behind a veil of "indefinate and obscure" as they are currently doing with their guidence to their users.

Adobe users deserve better than that.

Report · Sep 06, 2023

@craig_kasnoff I would assume that once this is publicly released from beta the restrictions on Commercial use will also be lifted. The restrictions are not unique to AI only - ANY beta software is not intended to be used for Commercial use.

Report · Sep 06, 2023

Hey Kevin...

I was a Beta tester for Windows 95 so I get your point (oh so many years ago : )

But my question revolves around the definition of "commercial." In normal US Trademark use "education" and "editorial" are not considered "commerical" (for the most part). So how is Adobe defining it?

And if Adobe is not "allowing" editorial, then how are so many writers selling articles with Adobe AI generated images (to talk about / promote the product) to publications without fear of being sued? Both selling an article and publishing it in a publication that has ads are "commercial" uses of the images.

I'm just trying to get clairity on Adobe's definition of "commercial."

But thanks for your response.

Report · Sep 06, 2023

By the way, my goal is to be able to use the images in my endangered species education websites like my Bagheera website https://Bagheera.com and for my writing about endangered species issues https://bagheera.com/about-endangered-species-journalist-craig-kasnoff/