Comments on: The Truth about Software Activation – It’s not purely about piracy

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:27:44 +0000

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?

By: jornofall

jornofall — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:38:41 +0000

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

By: Larry Carter

Larry Carter — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:11:34 +0000

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.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:31:08 +0000

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.

By: Jason Burns

Jason Burns — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:35:14 +0000

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.

By: Leif

Leif — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:41:40 +0000

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) ..