If I recall correctly it took Adobe a couple of months after the CS2 downloads first appeared to confirm the legal status of the licenses, i.e. that they weren't free and you needed a pre-exisiting license to use them legitimately. During that time they were widely advertised over the web as 'free' so it's not surprising if there are otherwise 'law-abiding' users who took the free downloads when they first appeared believing them to be free and missed the eventual clarification from Adobe.
What was even more puzzling was that the downloads were originally behind an Adobe account login but once word got around they actually moved them to an open web page where anyone could get them, no login required.
Premiere Pro download?
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- KVRAF
- 35439 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
The blog entry i posted earlier: https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2 ... rvers.html is dated January 2013, the same month Adobe announced the cease of the activation servers, and posted the download links: https://www.cnet.com/news/adobe-shuts-d ... ls-online/ and, as far as i remember, they also added the notice that those are only for owners of a legit license (and the linked CNET article even says it's only meant for owners of a license, so there's gotta have been a note). In fact, most german software portals still call it "free", but, if you read the description, they also state that you have to own a license, to download and use CS2. 
As i said, hypocrisy. Adobe maybe would have been better off taking a dump on CS2 owners, and suggest an upgrade for the existing users.
Anyway, gone and over. Maybe rather time to laugh, then to be angry about it. It doesn't work very well on newer computers anyway, so i heard.
As i said, hypocrisy. Adobe maybe would have been better off taking a dump on CS2 owners, and suggest an upgrade for the existing users.Anyway, gone and over. Maybe rather time to laugh, then to be angry about it. It doesn't work very well on newer computers anyway, so i heard.
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- KVRist
- 381 posts since 12 Jul, 2006
Yes, that's when Adobe put out their clarification but the downloads were available before that, for what its worth here's a link to the Adobe blog from Dec 2012: http://web.archive.org/web/201301110650 ... ad/1114930chk071 wrote:The blog entry i posted earlier ... is dated January 2013.
Yes, I've never been a fan of Adobe software - I wouldn't use it even if it WAS freechk071 wrote:Anyway, gone and over. Maybe rather time to laugh, then to be angry about it. It doesn't work very well on newer computers anyway, so i heard.
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- KVRAF
- 7748 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
No, they're still there (I checkedchk071 wrote:No, they're gone.GaryG wrote:Agreed, which makes the fact they had (indeed, still have) the downloads freely accessible all the more puzzling.
)Not sure why you're arguing, as I said before , I agree with you. Just pointing out I find it strange they didn't protect the downloads as, let's face it, if somethings just there for the taking then someone will take it. Doesn't make it right of course.But, hey, Adobe is a big company, which means they only consist of bosses and managers, which get a fortune anyway, right? Right, not.
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- KVRAF
- 2677 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
It wasn't as clear-cut as some here make it out to be. Adobe dumped their CS2 installers with serials included on the site and basically said come and get it. Only later when the whole internet rushed to download them did they add "only for current CS2" owners but still did nothing to actually enforce it.
They got loads of free advertising in the process. If they had wanted to limit it to verified owners they could have made it mandatory to provide a previous serial/activation code/proof of purchase. But they probably did not consider the trouble worthwile. After all CS was already on v5.5 at that time.
So I don't think anyone should feel quilty for taking advantage of those CS2 downloads. And I doubt Adobe would care either.
They got loads of free advertising in the process. If they had wanted to limit it to verified owners they could have made it mandatory to provide a previous serial/activation code/proof of purchase. But they probably did not consider the trouble worthwile. After all CS was already on v5.5 at that time.
So I don't think anyone should feel quilty for taking advantage of those CS2 downloads. And I doubt Adobe would care either.
No signature here!
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- KVRAF
- 7748 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
But they didn't though. They put them up for CS2 owners (though unprotected). It was the blogs that jumped on them and said they were free not Adobe.robotmonkey wrote:It wasn't as clear-cut as some here make it out to be. Adobe dumped their CS2 installers with serials included on the site and basically said come and get it.
That's immaterial or else you're arguing that if something isn't secured it's free for you to take. The fruit seller analogy is a little wonky as it could be argued there's (probably) no real loss to Adobe here but the principle is sound.Only later when the whole internet rushed to download them did they add "only for current CS2" owners but still did nothing to actually enforce it.
Would be interesting to see how many CS2 DLers went on to sign up for Adobes CC. Miniscule percentage I reckon.They got loads of free advertising in the process.
I doubt they'd do anything but they have to protect their IP so can't be seen to be giving PS away. Guilt is a personal ethics thing, up to the individual how they feel.So I don't think anyone should feel guilty for taking advantage of those CS2 downloads. And I doubt Adobe would care either.
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- KVRAF
- 3245 posts since 21 May, 2004 from Deep in the Heart of Texas
This incident gets weird and twisty in various ways. From my memory -- and only my memory, as I'm not going to do a lot of research on the sequence and implications, just for this thread -- the free download news exploded across the net, with no caveat that the software should only be used by people who already had licenses. Adobe was always an asshole corporate entity, and this was good publicity for them. It was obsolete software, and they could have easily set things up so that the downloads and serials were only available to prior owners, if it was all just about retiring their activation servers. And, not sure how relevant it might be, but the software had been completely cracked for some time, so was totally available to anybody who might wish to pirate it.
I'm not sure how accurate my memory is, but I think that Audition was still at v3, and I downloaded just for the hell of it, and also because I had a license for Audition v3, and wanted to have a copy that let me deal less with Adobe in case something went wrong. Then months later, it kind of trickled out that only legit owners were supposed to use the suite.
And the next part is where it gets twisty -- A lot of geeks believe that one of the main reasons that MS Office achieved total dominance in the marketplace is that they for years made it really easy for entire businesses to install Office on all of their machines using only one install code. It cost them tons of money in the short term, but let them completely kill off any competition for the long term. And made them the gold standard, the one piece of business software that EVERYBODY has to know how to use if they want to get hired. Which persists to this day. And now you have to buy a license for each install.
I haven't paid attention to it for awhile, but I think that Adobe still owns their market niche. I wonder if the timing of this release had anything to do with killing off a competitor before it could gain share, and/or spreading a version of the Adobe suite that would be so widely used that it would be the default choice for people when they were ready to update (and pay)? Because they were always all about playing hardball, just like MS.
I have a lot of trouble believing that Adobe is an innocent victim here.
I'm not sure how accurate my memory is, but I think that Audition was still at v3, and I downloaded just for the hell of it, and also because I had a license for Audition v3, and wanted to have a copy that let me deal less with Adobe in case something went wrong. Then months later, it kind of trickled out that only legit owners were supposed to use the suite.
And the next part is where it gets twisty -- A lot of geeks believe that one of the main reasons that MS Office achieved total dominance in the marketplace is that they for years made it really easy for entire businesses to install Office on all of their machines using only one install code. It cost them tons of money in the short term, but let them completely kill off any competition for the long term. And made them the gold standard, the one piece of business software that EVERYBODY has to know how to use if they want to get hired. Which persists to this day. And now you have to buy a license for each install.
I haven't paid attention to it for awhile, but I think that Adobe still owns their market niche. I wonder if the timing of this release had anything to do with killing off a competitor before it could gain share, and/or spreading a version of the Adobe suite that would be so widely used that it would be the default choice for people when they were ready to update (and pay)? Because they were always all about playing hardball, just like MS.
I have a lot of trouble believing that Adobe is an innocent victim here.
