December 16, 2009

The Photoshop Police are Cracking Down!

posted by Clay Yandle        3 comments          post a comment          share  

It started out as a joke... scan in some twenties then email them to a friend who's been waiting on the 200 bucks I owe him.

The scanning part was easy. I've done it before when I scanned a crisp $100 bill then photoshopped my 100 year-old aunt on to it, output it to a 4' x 8' banner and brought it to her birthday party. I've even scanned in loonies, twoonies... probably a few more I can't recall... all part of the job, really.

But today, when scanning in this fistful of twenties, I tried opening the file in photoshop only to get this error message:

Click on the INFORMATION link and you get told that:

"The counterfeiting of currency is a crime, and any reproduction of banknote images – even for artistic or advertising uses – is strictly forbidden."

and then this last line: "The Bank monitors Web sites for abuses."

YIKES!

Apparently I've now opened myself up to the possibility of "imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months and a maximum fine of $2,000"

OUCH!

And because I'm so curious, I did a quick Google search to see how The Bank was doing at their website monitoring and got these 2 million + results in .21 seconds:

Not too hard to find top-surface criminals... my favourite is Obama and his twenty bucks.

I can only imagine the reaction that would come to that new counterfeiter when the realization that all of his hopes and dreams are dying in front of his eyes as his scan is blocked from the gates of Photoshop... the great big "doh" that would ensue... the tears, the sound of crumbling dreams - all ruined by those meddling kids at Adobe.

Of course, it only took me a couple of clicks and a screenshot to get my path to incarceration started... and this blog post waving in the face of the The Bank Monitors isn't going to help. Anybody know of a good lawyer?

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And just for fun,... here's that $100 bill with my great Aunt Ivy on it:

posted by Clay Yandle        3 comments          post a comment          share