Gadgetopia

You guys remember the Photoshop controversy from a few months ago where it was discovered that Photoshop wouldn’t work with scans of currency? It was designed to protect against counterfeiting. There have been a few developments:

There’s a Web site now, rulesforuse.org, that details the rules issued by various currency-protecting agencies about how you can use images of money. The entry for the U.S. is from the United States Secret Service:

The Counterfeit Detection Act […] permits color illustrations of U.S. currency provided…the illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated, […]

Also, moneyfactory.com — the inventively-named official site of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing — offers low-res downloads of currency to placate the Photoshop-using masses. (At least they do according to this news article. I couldn’t actually find the downloads at their site. If you can, post the direct link.)