Photoshop CS = Big Brother Inside.

So, poking around the 'net inspired me to perform this experiment:

Attempt to scan a new $20.

Lo and behold:

So I showed this to Mike and Lorna saying:
jonah: I wonder who at adobe took that meeting with the feds
jonah: "We need you to add some..."
jonah: I'd be seething and sweating bullets at the same time.

I then tried it with a previous model $20 and got a perfectly good scan:


At Lorna's suggestion, decided to find the largest fraction of the bill that would not be detected as currency.

And that was about it - the full height of the bill (excluding the borders). Importing any larger (by even ~1/4" on the sides) of a piece resulted in the above mentioned Big Brother Dialog box.

Crazy stuff - this blanket restriction prevents even allowed uses:

The Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550, in Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, permits color illustrations of U.S. currency provided: From treas.gov

1. 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;
   
2. the illustration is one-sided; and
   
3. all negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use.
   

Sorry folks, I knew I didn't like Photoshop 8 for a reason. I think I'll go back to my trusty PS 5. ;)