Adobe PS CS Product Activation - doomed for failure?

Are you a decision making exec with adobe or major share-holder? if not, you are sure placing a lot of faith in a company you have no control over, to do something that YOU think they should/will, but which the company itself has not even mentioned nor made promises about.

A lot of people enjoy donating hard-earned cash to casinos also, based on the notion that casinos are run by nice felllows who just want to offer them a chance to win something.

framer said:

Member said:

As for fear, the only fear I have is that one day (say, when ver. 9
/ CS2.0) comes out, Adobe will decide to no longer give out the
activation code unless you purchase the newest version of the
software. Then, something I have paid for will become unusable.
Maybe Adobe will do that, maybe they won't, but I don't wish to
take the chance and have my continued use of a product I've paid a
lot of money for depend on their whim.

Click to expand...

And then maybe Adobe will create pigs that fly as well!

Click to expand...

dalephill said:

Carl, I fought for years fighting myself on why I should pay out
hundreds of dollars to the giants. Sure I started out like all the
rest a true Diehard, and if they didn't start charging for every
little version of upgrade, rather than be sensible about it and
give a few upgrades free, or even charge a nominal fee would have
been ok, but gouge us with enormous fees instead and then make us
start calling every time we change out a card is utterly ubsurd. So
when the opprutinity struck that I found I can buy the hack version
of the same thing, Hmmm you bet..And I do not feel guilty one bit.
I consider I have given them hundreds already and contributed to
there support and we as the consumer keep getting gouged.

Click to expand...

Now you've got me really confused! You said you weren't sure if your four buck Photoshop was a legitimate copy or not. But here you say you know you got a hacked version. Which is it?

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

I can only assume it is. It does not allow me to register on adobe.?? it doesn't tell me it is hacked, nor does it tell me its a good copy. ???? your guess is as good as mine.

Michael Geary said:

dalephill said:

Carl, I fought for years fighting myself on why I should pay out
hundreds of dollars to the giants. Sure I started out like all the
rest a true Diehard, and if they didn't start charging for every
little version of upgrade, rather than be sensible about it and
give a few upgrades free, or even charge a nominal fee would have
been ok, but gouge us with enormous fees instead and then make us
start calling every time we change out a card is utterly ubsurd. So
when the opprutinity struck that I found I can buy the hack version
of the same thing, Hmmm you bet..And I do not feel guilty one bit.
I consider I have given them hundreds already and contributed to
there support and we as the consumer keep getting gouged.

Click to expand...

Now you've got me really confused! You said you weren't sure if
your four buck Photoshop was a legitimate copy or not. But here you
say you know you got a hacked version. Which is it?

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

Click to expand...

It is so obvious he is just some simpleton who has nothing better to than waste our time.

kalahari said:

I have. I upgrade my computer all the time. I am always having to
call Microsoft. They never give me any trouble, but it is a major
issue. Right when you are in the middle of troubleshooting
computer issues you end up having to take a 20 minute break and
call Microsoft.

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I've had to call MS to re-activate Office or Windows XP on several occasions, and it's never taken anywhere near 20 minutes. The last time I did it was after having read some discussions online how painful it was, so I decided to time the call.

It took 5 minutes and 38 seconds.

Granted, it's a little inconvenient, and some calls may take longer. But really, if you're updating your hardware so regularily that you really have to worry it, you've got bigger problems besides having to reactivate a few pieces of software.

For years and years, most mainstream software has had little or no copy protection, and the result has been that there are usually far more illegal copies of any given program in circulation than legal ones.

Maybe not every illegal copy represents a lost sale, but quite a lot of them do. Is it reasonable to expect publishers to be happy with that situation and simply ignore the problem?

Do you lock your front door? I mean, you're the legitimate "user" of your home, so why should you be inconvenienced by having to use the key every time you come home? Don't you trust your neighbors? Why not just leave the door open?

Maybe you do trust your neighbors, but the bottom line is there are other people out there who can't be trusted. Product activation won't stop hardcore pirates any more than a front door lock will stop a hardcore burglar, but it does stop some of the more lightweight ones.

Given the wide array of far more annoying and intrusive copy protection measures that publishers could choose instead, product activation is really a pretty benign choice.

But if it's really that annoying, then why don't you come up with an alternative that ensures that legitimate users can use the program without being inconvenienced, while at the same time foiling illegal copies. I'm sure you'll make a lot of money selling it to software publishers.

kalahari said:

Try changing your motherboard sometime. Or change 4 or 5
peripherals at the same time. It always asks for activation. So
you end up trying to change one peripheral per week, to try to save
the phone call time -- and usually fail.

Click to expand...

I've changed printers, hard drives, modems, graphics cards, CDROM drives, and more, and never once have I had to reactivate anything as a result. What peripherals are you changing, anyway?

Changing the motherboard is the ONLY thing that's ever required me to reactivate, and since I was reinstalling Windows anyway, no big deal.

Mike

BobD said:

I own a legitimate
Photoshop license, but I will not upgrade. I take severe issue
with any company that makes the assumption that if your a loyal
customer and who spent as you say, $600 to purchase their product,
your are a potential thief...

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It's a curious leap of illogic to view product activation as a sign that Adobe or any other publisher is viewing every customer as a thief.

Your neighbor probably locks his front door at night. Do you consider that an insult? Is your neighbor calling you a thief? Probably not. The locked door is a defense against the fact that there ARE thieves in the world, but it's not (necessarily) directed at you in particular.

Let's consider an illegal copy of Photoshop. Where do you suppose they come from? Do you honestly think that it couldn't have its origin in someone's legal copy? All it takes is for someone to make a CD-R of the original disk for their brother, with the serial number written across the top. That's a fairly common scenario that most people wouldn't think of as hardcore piracy.

But let's take it a few steps farther. Suppose the brother makes a copy for his girlfriend, who gives it to her sister, who gives it to HER boyfriend, who uploads it all on Kazaa. As long as they don't register the serial number, there's nothing tying them to it, so what's to stop them?

OK, maybe most customers DON'T do something like that. Let's be really naive and say that only 1 customer in 1000 might do that.

Now pick that guy out of the crowd, why don't you?

The problem is, you can't tell the good guys from the bad guys until after the fact, and often not even then. And the "bad guys" may not have even thought they were really doing anything wrong.

Maybe each link in the chain of events seems like it's not a big deal, but we've just described at least 5 illegal copies being made from 1 legal copy. And who's to say the chain stops there? It's easy to see how the same serial number could be used to install the software on any number of machines.

Product activation means that if someone tries to install the software using the same serial number over and over, someone's going to notice. If you've really got a legitimate reason for installing the software over and over, then you shouldn't have a problem. But few people are going to try to go though an activation phone call with an illegal copy.

It's even more illogical to presume that the potential inconvenience of activation could possibly outweigh the inconvenience of not having the program at all. I mean, if you decide you don't need the new features in the upgrade, that's one thing, but if you do, then how could activation possibly outweigh that?

Mike

BenT said:

So, Product Activation may be fine for guys who live and work 30
minutes from the nearest computer superstore, and where the phone
call to the vendor is a free or low-cost call.

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In other words, North America.

BenT said:

But try it in a
foreign country where "800" numbers don't exist, long distance
costs $3.00 per minute, and the internet connection blazes along at
21kbps for that $3.00 per minute!

Click to expand...

So in other words, it MIGHT be occasionally inconvenient for 1 user in 100000 (if that many) who gets in a sticky situation where they have to reinstall the application while traveling, and who will be traveling for at least the next 30 days, since you have that long to activate the program after installation.

BenT said:

Again, the onus of Product Activation is placed on the user, not
the crook.

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I'd love to hear your ideas for how to place the onus on the crook while leaving the legitimate user completely unaffected. How does that work?

Mike

dalephill said:

Also I am not liable for what I buy in a store, I do not have to
think about is this pirate or legal, its not up to the consumer to
have to think about it, I get a reciept for all I buy, and with
that, it makes its very legal. For me anyway.

Click to expand...

Dude, do a little research on the subject of "willful blindness". You might just be surprised at how flimsy your argument really is.

Mike

framer said:

It is so obvious he is just some simpleton who has nothing better
to than waste our time.

Click to expand...

You're right, of course. I wasn't really confused. He knows it's a stolen, hacked copy and has known it all along. The only confusing thing is why he's playing this silly game.

"Gosh, I didn't know that diamond bracelet I paid four bucks for was stolen! I just assumed I was getting a really good deal."

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

[Hint to our friend: That disclaimer isn't there just for legal purposes. It's to give you a clue that even at a big faceless corporation like Adobe, there are real people who work there, working hard to make good products, and trying to feed our families just like you.]

Mike,

It's good to see someone else that has a brain and isn't scared like everyone else...

dalephill,

Do you think you could murder someone and get away with it just because you pleaded ignorant of the laws?. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

--

Jon, you seem to really like the phrase "tilting at windmills".

There is a point you don't quite seem to be catching though...

your mindset and the way your world functions, does not hold true for everyone. Different people experience different problems than you have evidently had to face. The point is, for many of us, activation simply will not work.

You ask about spare laptops. Actually, the fact is, the computer hardware is not at all hard to come by. Everyone I work with also has a laptop, so by carrying installation disks, I can continue work on any computer available to me. I have also donated several laptops to the fellows who live in the villages...and the solar panels to run them. The hardware is available. The thing that's scarce are copies of some specialized, (expensive) software. . . like photoshop.

Caunt,

For such an extreme example such as yours why don't you contact Adobe and tell them of your special circumstances. If they are unable to meet you needs use different software.

For the other 99.8% of us activation isn't a problem.

Well, I really was hoping that Adobe might think about situations like mine when I wrote them and told them the difficulties I have with activation.
But I haven't heard anything back... yet...

framer said:

Caunt,

For such an extreme example such as yours why don't you contact
Adobe and tell them of your special circumstances. If they are
unable to meet you needs use different software.

For the other 99.8% of us activation isn't a problem.

Click to expand...

http://www.wingimp.org Photoshop substitute.
http://www.openoffice.org Microsoft Office substitute.
and lot more

supports Windows, Mac, Linux and best of all it's free.

It appears thats what your after is to waste time. I never said I didn't know it was hacked, But with simple minds come simpletons. The point is here and always have been I (bought) again (bought) again (bought) paid monies thats right (bought) I did not steal anything, I paid just like you did, and all the rest. I just bought at a good price.. Just as you would go to discount store and purchase. Regardless If I knew it was hacked or not, I still paid for my product and with reciept. Game what Game... The game of life.??? Sure I play...

Michael Geary said:

framer said:

It is so obvious he is just some simpleton who has nothing better
to than waste our time.

Click to expand...

You're right, of course. I wasn't really confused. He knows it's
a stolen, hacked copy and has known it all along. The only
confusing thing is why he's playing this silly game.

"Gosh, I didn't know that diamond bracelet I paid four bucks for
was stolen! I just assumed I was getting a really good deal."

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

[Hint to our friend: That disclaimer isn't there just for legal
purposes. It's to give you a clue that even at a big faceless
corporation like Adobe, there are real people who work there,
working hard to make good products, and trying to feed our families
just like you.]

Click to expand...

Hi. I work for a government agency which protects copyrights; we even arrest the crooks who distribute the stuff. You may think what you're doing is clever or cute like you're some Robin Hood who steals from the rich but, in the US and many other countries it's still illegal.

My comment here is not to dissuade you; as a father of three adult sons I've heard all the self-serving nonsense I care to. You think you're clever and cool. However you're bragging about and admmttiing copyright infringement in public and that can get you banned from this site. Phil Askey cannot get the support from vendors if he permits thoughtless remarks like yours.

A word to the (hopefully) wise.

Rich

dalephill said:

Michael Geary said:

framer said:

It is so obvious he is just some simpleton who has nothing better
to than waste our time.

Click to expand...

You're right, of course. I wasn't really confused. He knows it's
a stolen, hacked copy and has known it all along. The only
confusing thing is why he's playing this silly game.

"Gosh, I didn't know that diamond bracelet I paid four bucks for
was stolen! I just assumed I was getting a really good deal."

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

[Hint to our friend: That disclaimer isn't there just for legal
purposes. It's to give you a clue that even at a big faceless
corporation like Adobe, there are real people who work there,
working hard to make good products, and trying to feed our families
just like you.]

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

dalephill said:

Michael Geary said:

framer said:

It is so obvious he is just some simpleton who has nothing better
to than waste our time.

Click to expand...

You're right, of course. I wasn't really confused. He knows it's
a stolen, hacked copy and has known it all along. The only
confusing thing is why he's playing this silly game.

"Gosh, I didn't know that diamond bracelet I paid four bucks for
was stolen! I just assumed I was getting a really good deal."

-Mike (not speaking for my employer, Adobe Systems, Inc.)

[Hint to our friend: That disclaimer isn't there just for legal
purposes. It's to give you a clue that even at a big faceless
corporation like Adobe, there are real people who work there,
working hard to make good products, and trying to feed our families
just like you.]

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--

You are raising a valid point, depending on how well they implement it could be no big deal for legitimate purchasers or a real productivity roadblock. If it is a reasonable process I don't have any problem with it. I don't think most other PS users will either given the value included in this upgrade.

p2g

http://www.powder2glass.com

dalephill said:

It appears thats what your after is to waste time. I never said I
didn't know it was hacked, But with simple minds come simpletons.
The point is here and always have been I (bought) again (bought)
again (bought) paid monies thats right (bought) I did not steal
anything, I paid just like you did, and all the rest. I just bought
at a good price.. Just as you would go to discount store and
purchase. Regardless If I knew it was hacked or not, I still paid
for my product and with reciept. Game what Game... The game of
life.??? Sure I play...

Click to expand...

No, my clueless friend, it's not like going to a discount store. And no, you didn't pay for a Photoshop license. How much of your four bucks do you think went to Adobe, who wrote and owns the software?

You paid four bucks for a CD containing stolen software. You know that perfectly well. The fact that you paid somebody for the CD doesn't change that.

Look, don't trust what I say on this. Visit this page and read for yourself:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/antipiracy/piracy.html

And then visit this page and report the thief who "sold" you the stolen goods:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/antipiracy/reportform.html

Just don't play the wide-eyed innocent any more. The web page listed above will give you all the facts in this matter, and then you'll have no more excuse.

-Mike

Hmmmm... whether or not the fence gives you a receipt, it's still called "receiving stolen property." Receipt or no receipt, you still can go to jail...