EDIT: fenixproductions, 100 p.c. on your side, was a little bit mixing up the culprits and the messenger. Sorry!
wraith888, I'm sure the op was as excited about this chimeric "find" as most of us were.
The above-mentioned Adobe discussion
http://forums.adobe....#4974633?PID=4485850is highly instructive in part, search for "Matthileo" (several posts) for marketing considerations, similar to what I said above when I thought it was legitimate but tried to find their purpose / motivation behind it,
"(And if they offer you an update for less than 600 bucks - remember, under normal circumstances, CS2 would not even be upgradeable anymore (since more than 2 versions "old") - take it: It's state-of-the-art sw, even my ages-old versions are top-notch. (Without such an exceptional planned update offering, why would they give CS2 away now, so expect that to come your way afterwards - begin saving up for it!))"
Also, search there for "Ozpeter" (one long post): He explains why he seriously thinks Adobe might have given out valid licenses in the end, and I judge his argumentation serious indeed.
This brings us to the question - also in the case of possible ex-post acknowledgement of this scoop by Adobe - that many of us (even Adobe ID owners like myself) didn't understand very well the functioning of this downloading business and just downloaded the files in question from the links given here, not by accessing any page - the inaccessible one? - by their respective Adobe ID.
The technical problem here is, in the Adobe discussion they speak about activation codes for every program, while we were given, here, just ONE such activation code (activation code meaning here, a code you put into the program in order to "activate" it locally, the point being that they shut down their activation servers, hence their need for giving out activation codes functioning without the program phoning home): So, is it ONE code for the whole package, as I had thought by just reading posts here, or is it a whole bunch of activation codes, 10 different such codes for 10 different programs in the package, from which most of us will then only have got one?
In order for not being censored, let me make clear that I ask this question under the provision that the download itself, together with its intended purpose, the use of the program(s), might be considered perfectly legal, and in this case only, e.g. because Adobe will say so, after all:
Then, we'd need those missing codes if there are any, right? Since the page on which those codes are presumed to be available if there you enter your Adobe ID, is not accessible anymore, and highly probably never will become accessible again, we'd probably be in the situation we didn't think of: Our files are perhaps legal, but unusable by lack of the necessary codes! (When before, we thought we had all in our need, except for the legal foundation to use it.)
So, anybody having installed the whole package, with that only code given here? No other codes needed?
And then, if really they have shut down their activation servers: I've got (expensive AND NEEDED) software from them that phones home on activation, older than CS2 - without these activation servers, will I get the needed activation by phone, from them, in case I change my pc, or just my hdd? If such was needed, this is the first big occasion upon which that "activation by phoning only" scheme will perhaps be proven to be too unfavorable to users, even with a big company (except for MS where there's always the fall-back by phoning to physical people in extremis) - not speaking of sole developers going out of business, but speaking of a heavyweight like Adobe where your bought, legitimate license perhaps will not be transferred anymore to your new computer (with an old, compatible operating system): legally, that's dispossession, and I think there will be some problems for Adobe, by (and if) them shutting down activation servers and not procuring any "human fall back".
And finally, as for their motivation, either it's a set-up in order to create update revenu, as mused upon above ("We'll make you an offer you can't refuse"), or it's blatant stupidity as one man in the Adobe forum said... or, perhaps, it's been a scheme set up by somebody there that will not be thrown out now, but who had already been given notice, and who then had inadvertently be given the occasion to be remembered forever, in this company. It seems that so many people got aware of this that Adobe has to react in some way that will not put off anybody but the hardest-core graphists using their very latest versions anyway - but this will not mean they will give away those missing codes if there are any. At best, they will say, ok it's legal if you've got all what you need - but they will certainly not help anybody to gather anything else, be it codes, or be it further files not downloaded yet.
And, to tell you the truth, it's highly probable that "Ozpeter"'s right, but only for those happy few that can prove they downloaded the files (and code(s)) BY USING their Adobe ID's - so for most of us, it'll probably be illegal use if any, since we got the files, but not by going by an unaccessible intermediate stopping page.
And such a setup, where there's only a fraction of legitimate users in the end, updating or not, strongly indicates not a purposeful scheme by Adobe, but simply sabotage from within Adobe.
In other words, if they ever had had the intention to legalize it afterwards, in order to get new, updating customers, they would have ensured that this intermediate "enter your Adobe ID, then get code(s) and download link(s)" page had stayed accessible - remember, file download was high-speed in spite of the run.
So, let's safely assume most of us are empty-handed whatever the outcome.
