Dawngrrl was pointing out to me that my blog has been quite stagnant of late. I will toss in one excuse, which I have been doing some maintenance to the site, and that is complete, but honestly with the holidays, snow doldrums and a series of way to intense hobbies lately, I have just been a slacker. Enough of that, to the point.
This post is really a conversation about software anti-piracy schemes that is based on some research and thoughts on the activation process that comes with Adobe’s CS4 (and earlier) software line.
The Problem
I purchased a legal and legitimate copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended. I installed it on my Mac Pro and my Macbook Pro promptly and began the Lynda.com training to learn all the new features and goodies in the new version. My Mac Pro shares space with my audio gear making it not the most comfortable place to do real graphics work (something I am working to remedy as we speak) so I decided to go through the tutorials on my iMac. I got started and then wanted to check out some of the features for myself, but I don’t have Photoshop installed on the iMac. My quick remedy was to just open the Macbook Pro nearby so I can check stuff out, but tonight as I watch my beloved Cleveland Cavaliers, I decided to do a little reading about Adobe’s license strategy. I quickly learned that I am not able to have it “activated” on more than two machines and although I can install it on all three and activate and un-activate the software, after 20 or so activations, I would be locked out and have to call Adobe and beg to be able to use my software again, not an option.
The Myth
So after doing quite a bit of reading I found a lot of anti-Adobe sentiment by not so scrupulous users who openly admit, on Adobe’s forums no less, to using cracked versions of their software.Quickly you see the overwhelming majority believe that the Adobe authorization scheme is useless and does not stop piracy whatsoever.
“When CS4 is released the activation or whatever methods they employ will be cracked within days of the release. That is FACT.
I ask… How can Adobe think this is a good business decision? It’s like a slap in the face to the honest people who try to give Adobe our money and do the right thing. Maybe they are trying to push us to the point that we steal the software instead. Sure seems like it.”
This quote from one of the members of the forums clearly illustrates the myth and I think it’s time we set the record straight. I will say it as clear as possible. Activation methods are meant to stop software Piracy, but not the type of piracy you might be thinking of.
I think you will find that Adobe, Microsoft and other large software vendors accept a certain amount of illegal piracy just like Wal-Mart builds in theft into their sales projections. It’s a fact of life in the software industry. Of course they will do everything they can to stop it, but that’s not the only kind of piracy, and honestly it’s not the worst kind. I would say with confidence that the guys that download activation cracks and search websites for stolen keys never intended to pay for the software anyway. In this case it’s not really a lost sale as much as pure theft.
But there is piracy that IS lost sales. Three types that I can think of are the “casual” pirate and the “soho” pirate and the “accidental” pirate.
The casual pirate is the guy who will install any software that his buddy gives him to install. He won’t really go out of his way to figure out ways to steal it, and he can afford it, but without any real consequence, he’ll install it and not think twice. The reality is that if you make it difficult for this person to pirate it, or discourage his friend from passing it along, he’ll buy it and Adobe keeps the sale. Activation schemes accomplish this. By making me reluctant to give you my key, Adobe forces this casual user to buck up and pay for it.
The soho pirate is usually the small business that has a small design shop or web design firm. Back in the old days these were big problems because computers weren’t networked often and the user would buy one copy of Photoshop and install it on every computer in the building, no harm no foul, no consequence. Now that computers are almost always networked and usually also on the internet, activation schemes takes away this convenient license abuse and “encourages” the owner to buy the correct number of licenses.
The last category, the accidental pirate is usually not using the software at all. He is the IT guy at a huge company, and his job is just to install the software he is told to install. Without the management software and activation, there is really no way to know if they are still in the valid license zone. These strategies keep the companies “honest” by making sure they don’t over extend their licenses.
In Conclusion
I will admit to being slightly annoyed that I can’t install CS4 on all three of my Macs. I wish I could, but as someone who works for a major software company, I completely understand the logic. Adobe isn’t “going after” the customer; they are just protecting their intellectual property by making sure the licenses are followed.
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Hmm, I think you are right on the real purpose of the activation..but the problem is that this activation and other forms of DRM just makes it very hard for end-users to use the products. In the case of Adobe, why could they not just let me like iTunes or Zune does. Allow me to activate the software on three machines ( or two) and then I can remove machines from the list once a month. Even better, you could have one price for one machine and add a small fee per machine after wards…of course this would work up to a limit ( say 5 machines) ..
I think that licensing model would work out great Leif. I think Adobe is probably in the unfortunate situation that of the paying customers, it’s the 2-10 license shops that are most abuse the policies. I can’t say that if I was in a small business that I would be doing everything I can to limit license costs for software (within legal reason of course) but it sure is annoying when you are just a guy with a bunch of computers you use a lot. The reality is no matter how you look at it, software is ‘practically’ licensed per user. So it’s silly that I would technically have to purchase 5 copies of Photoshop to be legal for me to use it when and where I want.
Adobe’s activation scheme for Photoshop DOES let you deauthorize it on one machine and re-install it on another. There is no one-a-month-limit either.
You can have it on one desktop and one laptop (it does not know the difference, so effectively just two machines).
The problem there comes if you forget to de-authorize before you uninstall, or if a machine outright fails.
Problem for me was, I own 3 Macs and I had problem with a new macbook, after installing Adobe Standard Suite my new computer died after a week of use. There was no way of deactivating prior to the crash so I can install it on a the new computer so I had to deactivate an reactive one of my computers because I knew I would have to spend several hours trying to convince Adobe support what had happened. Now I’m in deeper trouble since the 2nd mac had the same fate of a defective SATA controller. Now I’m waiting on my 3rd mac and will have one heck of a time to activate it. I wish Adobe would at least allow user control to deactivate computers directly at Adobe to compensate for computer problems. I’m against this practice of a faulty system of activation. There are problems users have that goes beyond Adobe’s understanding.
Maaaan, you know there is such thing in the web like search engine, http://google.com if you don’t, go there to understand why this post is bullshit
The real question is…
Is activation an attempt to eliminate piracy or an intent to turn perpetual software licenses into subscription software that expires at some unknown future date?
I bought a “perpetual” license to use Robohelp, and subsequently upgraded it many times, to the tune of $2K or more, finally at version X4.1. Adobe bought Robohelp from Macromdia, apparently shut down the activation servers, and apparently (in my case at least) refuses to help.
I have a now 16 day old case open with Adobe, where after 6 hours of time spent talking to (and arguing with) at least a dozen Adobe support people, a supervisor promised to provide me with a new installer that would resolve my activation problems. The link he provided would not give me access to the file (security issue) and he subsequently promised to resolve that. But I am still waiting, after 16 days now.
At the end of the first 3 hours of time spent on the phone with Adobe, all I got from at least 4 different support people was “that software is old, you should upgrade it”. Of course, Adobe has no upgrade credit for my version, so I would not be able to “upgrade” it, I would have to buy a brand new copy, at full street price ($999).
Now either one of the world’s largest software companies does not have the technical wherewithal to give me log in access to a file download, or Adobe has no intention of following it’s publicly stated policy of using whatever technical means necessary to ensure that customers will be able to use their software in perpetuity, per the EULA’s.
Which do you think it is?