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Rumors of Adobe releasing CS2 for free? (true or NOT true)

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fenixproductions:
@helmut85
I may apologize for first improper title but I don't feel guilty for spamming. I do not consider it spam.
My posting was more naive than malicious. As wraith808 wrote: I thought it was helpful.

I remember from the past situation where small company called Ritlabs released WinRAR keys for free for one day for everyone.
It quickly had became DDOS for them and I remember waiting more than about 4 hours before I've got my key. Some of my friends were not so lucky.
I thought it may be the same for Adobe.

So as I value people here - after thinking about it - I've shared news. Partially hoping someone will validate it too - for installer and legal side.

I'd like to notice that I hate spam appearing on forum boards. I hate spam in emails (so much that I deleted 90% of my address book because people couldn't stop bothering me).

On the other hand: I will not be surprised when Adobe pulls it back. As matter a fact: I've expected them to do it as quick as it possible and not being quiet for so long.
It may sound like spoiled kid words but I expected them to be "evil" right away. I've been on lot of Adobe seminaries and presentations. And while many companies always tried to be remembered somehow (sometimes by giving goofy stuff like posters or free keys for some quiz winners), Adobe just did their excellent presentations and that is all. I've yet too see Adobe ballpoint ;)

They have awesome evangelists and very good graphic tools. But they also are the kings of the hills sometimes.

As for title: it's up to mouser to decide.

x16wda:
For my part, a purchaser of Photoshop 7, CS1, CS2 and CS3, I heartily applaud the result, no matter how incredibly absurdly it has been handled.  Adobe licensing assistance is THE PITS.  A valid licensee can install the software on two PCs, but heaven help you if you have a head crash on one of them because they won't talk to you over the weekend.  I have had to sneak time in a busy workday and remote into my home PC to get it licensed again.  Heavens, Microsoft is far far better!

helmut85:
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.com/message/4974633#4974633?PID=4485850

is 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.

Edvard:
However this shakes out, I agree it's a huge PR spectacle for Adobe, and they may even make sales (of the newer suite) from it.  I mean, they're not losing anything but bandwidth at this point, and folks who balked at the price previously can now get a taste of the forbidden fruit.  No, they probably didn't intend for this level of feeding frenzy, but I do find it curious that they are still allowing it to be downloaded at this point.

Downloading it anyways; My XP partition could use a visit...  :P

helmut85:
Edvard, this point goes to you, and that's reason for mild optimism re the outcome for us. By leaving the download servers online, they'd produce more and more future enemies if in the end they didn't legalize it all and for all.

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