Washington - Adobe Systems Inc. acknowledged Friday that it quietly added technology to it's graphics software at the request of government regulators
and international bankers, to prevent consumers from making copies of the world's major currencies.
This unusual concession has angered scores of customers.
The San Jose company, the world's leading vendor for graphics software, said the technology "would have minimal impact on honest customers."
It generates a warning message when someone tries to make digital copies of some currencies.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and other organizations that worked on the technology said they could not disclose how it works or name which software companies include it in their products.
"We sort of knew this would come out eventually," Adobe spokesman Russell Brady said. "We can't really talk about the technology itself."
Experts said Adobe's decision is one of the rare occasions on which a U.S. technology firm has agreed to include third-party software code in commercial products at the request of government and finance officials.
Adobe revealed that it had added the technology after a customer complained in an online support forum abut the mysterious behavior of the new $649 Photoshop CS software when opening an image of a U.S. $20 bill.
Kevin Connor, Adobe's product management director, said it would not disclose the technology, at the request of international bankers.
Adobe's Internet message boards are flooded with complaints about censorship and concerns over possible restrictions on other types of images, such as copyrighted or adult material.
"I don't believe this. This shocks me," said Stephen Burns, president of the Photoshop users group in San Diego. "Let the U.S. government or whoever is involved deal with this, but don't take the powers of the government and place them into a commercial software package."
Policy experts were divided on the technology. Bruce Schneier, an expert on security and privacy, praised the technology. Gene Spafford, a Purdue University security expert, said Adobe should have notified it's customers.
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