Nearly a decade ago I was sitting at a coffee in Berlin when a flyer for a local music festival drew my attention. It was not the composition that drew my attention, but a picture of a tent in a bellvest decorated in a fairy, selling people on the expensive highlight.
I immediately knew it was a false advertising. How? Because the picture was mine.
I photographed her at the camp not in Germany, not at a festival, but at a small camp owned by the family on the north-east coast of England. I posted the photo on a trip blog I ran at the time, and got in Pinterest and from there to coffee in Berlin.
In here and now, every creative thing we put online is more in danger than ever – not only from direct theft, but to use it to use Train Ai It is increasingly dominated by our world. This is why Adobe, used by creatives working through many art media, have invested so strongly in securing people ways to retain their own work even when it is published online for the whole world.
At the Adobe Max Creativity Conference in London on Thursday, the company announced that it had Announces the content authenticity applicationFirst Announced in Octoberfor everyone to take. The application allows you to attach a digital watermark to your creative work that connects to your name and public profiles and, crucial, allows you to say if you do not want your content to be used for AI training.
Free tool to protect your work
It is clear that as much as Adobe wants to protect the work of its clients, thinking much greater than that. Adobe content authenticity standards are already attached to the job done using its platforms, so this independent application is not to strengthen your own business. Key, and unlike almost all other Adobe tools, you do not need a creative cloud account to download the application and is free.
“It's really for anyone,” said Andy Parsons, older director of the Adobe's content authenticity initiative in an interview. “Everyone should have that kind of ability to attribute the last mile to their work.”
Parsons showed me how, through a browser plug, you can see the signature of authenticity of the content of photos posted on Instagram. Previously this was something that only the professionals could do in their pictures, but now the option is open for everyone to use. And I firmly believe that I should. I know you will.
Adobe app can help anyone create and use content credentials, as seen on Instagram.
I don't think I'm creator of content, but I post photos I take on CNET and regularly post on my public Instagram. I have already taken my photos for commercial purposes – if that can happen to me, it can happen to everyone. The idea that my photos or videos will be used to train AI is something I like even less.
Speaking to the creators in Adobe Max, I found a real excitement for the content authenticity application.
“The discovery is how people like me get a job,” said photographer, contents writer and creator Jonon Devo. He is more convenient to share his best job online when you can ensure that he can connect to him, even if he is selected from aggregator accounts.
“There are things I have created in the last five, six years that I hesitated to share, because I was like, if this gathered, and if people like it and share it, it will never be connected to me,” he said. “I already have a bank with content that I can start sharing after these things become ubiquitous-so, that's what, for me, is doing what changes the game.”
Devo feels encouraged by the fact that Adobe teamed up with other major tech companies to create its standards for accreditives for content. The open standard is crucial for widespread adoption, says Parsons. Increasingly bake directly in our technology such as Samsung Galaxy S25. But for the rest of us who have no content credentials ready to go to our phones, there is the new application.
Despite the fact that for me, and for the creators of content like Devo, the stakes feel higher than ever, not everyone will be convinced that they need the protection that the content is offered. I asked Parsons what I would say to persuade someone to download the application.
“The world is changing very fast,” he said. “It is true that you want to have some expressions about your content.”
“Instead of saying, why did it do it? My question will be, why not?”