The Fine Print Will Always Get You!

I hesitated to link to the new Photoshop Express site (in beta), which offers basic online Photoshop functionality for free, mostly because after looking at it with Eric and Able, we all concluded that it really wasnt worth using at this point, since we all have Photoshop on our computers and Picnik is also free and better. But now I have an even better reason! Apparently, the terms of service are raising eyebrows aplenty (note that when you click the terms of service link in the footer of the site, you get the Additional Terms of Service, but to read the General Terms of Service, you have to click an additional obscure link). Get a load of this:

Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

According to Wired, John Nack, Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Photoshop, reports that the Photoshop Express team has responded to questions about the license saying, we reviewed the terms in context of your comments — and we agree that it currently implies things we would never do with the content. Good to know. In the meantime, stick to Picnik.