Adobe.com offering up most of CS2 for free [win/mac]

[SQ]

How about I make it easier on everyone and request this thread be deleted with an addendum that if you would like to talk about Adobe's precarious legal situation concerning its software downloads section, you should make a thread in the general discussion forum?

[post-it]

umm, maybe the one to ask would be "tab." considering he's with the Doom9 Network;
I would imagine this issue has popped-up a few times on their forums ^__^

-- just a thought

[Qyot27]

It's now been 2, almost 3, weeks and the page is still up. It does now have a notice at the top that says:

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers below should only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

But it still took them this long to put that notice there (I'd checked the page yesterday or the day before, no notice; today, notice).

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's now been 2, almost 3, weeks and the page is still up. It does now have a notice at the top that says:

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers below should only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

But it still took them this long to put that notice there (I'd checked the page yesterday or the day before, no notice; today, notice).

That notice was mentioned on the ars technica story that I first read about this on, the day after it happened. They had it posted somewhere beforehand, not nessisarily on that page. The story comments suggested that they had several different pages up for this over the course of those first few days.

[Qyot27]

It may have been the difference between the initial link the thread mentions (that required logging in first), and the new one, which requires no login at all.

Also, it's still extremely similar to the standing 'official' explanation, although it's a bit more direct. The thing that gets me is the proscription of what licensed users should do juxtaposed against the statement that Adobe advises against running outdated software. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the fact that they haven't restricted the page down for some sort of verification first is what's still weird about the whole thing. They're smart enough to know that the honor system means nothing on the Internet, and they have the technical resources to avoid that situation - even without the activation servers.

[SQ]

@Qyot27:

Adobe's known for not really caring about piracy. They're probably pretty apathetic to situation at this point, and are simply covering their asses legally.

[Qyot27]

I figured as much (that the notice is there more for plausible deniability with the licensors they have to answer to) by now. The alternative was that the notices are there to make people feel guilty after they quietly cleared away the obstacles and basically did this deliberately (but would never actually admit to that). Which is just twisted.

[DJ_Izumi]

@Qyot27:

Adobe's known for not really caring about piracy. They're probably pretty apathetic to situation at this point, and are simply covering their asses legally.

It's not that they don't care about piracy, it's that they realize that the vast majority of people who pirate the software would never, ever buy the software. However the people who have a ligitimate need for Adobe Software? Unless they are freakin' stupid, they will buy the software out of fear that Adobe will sue the bejebus out of them. I'm an indie filmmaker, I'm filming a shoot out between police and a suspect in an ER for a film in two weeks. Wanna know what could happen if my copy of Adobe CS6 was't ligit? Adobe could sue me for royalties or worse.

But people captioning photos of cats or screwing around making little music videos for YouTube? They'd NEVER buy this stuff and if maybe one day their usage of that software lead to them having a professional need for it, now they've been sold on how great the software is and they'll be whipping out their credit cards.

[Ryvannis]

@Qyot27:

Adobe's known for not really caring about piracy. They're probably pretty apathetic to situation at this point, and are simply covering their asses legally.

It's not that they don't care about piracy, it's that they realize that the vast majority of people who pirate the software would never, ever buy the software. However the people who have a ligitimate need for Adobe Software? Unless they are freakin' stupid, they will buy the software out of fear that Adobe will sue the bejebus out of them. I'm an indie filmmaker, I'm filming a shoot out between police and a suspect in an ER for a film in two weeks. Wanna know what could happen if my copy of Adobe CS6 was't ligit? Adobe could sue me for royalties or worse.

But people captioning photos of cats or screwing around making little music videos for YouTube? They'd NEVER buy this stuff and if maybe one day their usage of that software lead to them having a professional need for it, now they've been sold on how great the software is and they'll be whipping out their credit cards.

That's pretty much it. Pushing against piracy would only increase it, at least in what Adobe assumes. Though they won't make it exactly easy for people circumvent their programs. Not that I'm enforcing the idea. I'm basically implying that they really can't do nothing about the piracy, so they might as well cover try and cover their bases in the long run at least.