Adobe New Terms for Photoshop, Illustrator Infuriates Users

Adobe’s changes to its terms of use have sparked outrage on social media, as creatives publicly push back against Adobe having full access to the work they create.

Adobe recently updated its terms of use to clarify that it can access user content automatically and manually “using techniques such as machine learning.”

The company can use, replicate, or “create derivative works” based on what its users create on Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator. It can also look at subscriber content, even if the user is under a non-disclosure agreement, which effectively breaks the NDA, per Apple Insider.

The language of the new terms also opens the door for Adobe to use content created by subscribers, even pieces protected by NDAs, to train its AI image generator Firefly.

Related: Adobe’s Firefly Image Generator Was Partially Trained on AI Images From Midjourney, Other Rivals

In a Wednesday post on X liked more than 71,000 times and viewed by more than 9.5 million people, creative concept artist Sam Santala called out Adobe for its new terms.

“So am I reading this right?” Santala wrote. “I can’t use Photoshop unless I’m okay with you having full access to anything I create with it, INCLUDING NDA work?”

So am I reading this, right? @Adobe @Photoshop

I can’t use Photoshop unless I’m okay with you having full access to anything I create with it, INCLUDING NDA work? pic.twitter.com/ZYbnFCMlkE

— Sam Santala (@SamSantala) June 5, 2024

Santala noted that he couldn’t talk to Adobe’s support chat, uninstall Photoshop, or even sign in and cancel his subscription unless he agreed to the terms.

Santala’s post was one in a chorus. Other creatives, from toy designers to movie directors, also publicly took issue with Adobe’s new terms.

Here it is. If you are a professional, if you are under NDA with your clients, if you are a creative, a lawyer, a doctor or anyone who works with proprietary files – it is time to cancel Adobe, delete all the apps and programs. Adobe can not be trusted. pic.twitter.com/LFnBbDKWLC

— Wetterschneider (@Stretchedwiener) June 5, 2024

Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer for Adobe Creative Cloud, responded to Santala’s post and stated: “Adobe does NOT train any GenAI models on customer’s content, and we obviously have tight security around any form of access to customer’s content.”

The Adobe Creative Cloud has an estimated 33 million subscribers.