New Activiation Scheme for Adobe CS 2
When Adobe’s Creative Suite 2 was
officially announced yesterday, it didn’t take long before details of the Adobe’s new activation requirement began
to overshadow the wealth of new features introduced.
In an effort to curtail “casual copying,” Adobe will now require that all CS 2 applications be activated/verified
against a licensing server within 30 days of installation. Licenses can also be activated by phone. The 30-day grace
period allows for emergency installs on additional systems should your authorized computer be stolen or damaged.
Adobe’s licensing terms state that you can install their products on 2 of your machines. That makes sense for many
users who have both a desktop and a laptop. This new activation requirement won’t change that. But now, if you buy a
new computer in addition to what you already have or as a replacement, for example, and you want to install Photoshop
or any other CS2 app on it, you’ll need to deactivate (ala iTunes Music Store) a previous installation or the product
will stop working after 30 days. There is no information yet about whether corporate/bulk seat license holders will be
exempt from this activation process, which can be a tremendous burden to a company’s IT department when it comes to
rolling out standard (and identical) configurations and image builds across an entire company or network.
“It’s important to note that this is not a change in the way we do business — the overall terms of our license are
the same as they always have been,” Drew McManus, Adobe’s Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy, told
MacCentral. “We are just using activation
to authenticate that those terms are being adhered to.”
As you probably know, Quark uses a similar activation process and many people hate them for it. Just as many people
will hate Adobe now. Quark’s isn’t quite so user-friendly, however.
I think the 30-day grace period makes this a reasonable and smart implementation. It doesn’t interfere with the typical
user’s workflow and it enables Adobe to enforce their own license terms without being heavy-handed.
Something tells me you’re going to disagree with me.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Darryl Zurn said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
My company has purchased multiple copies of the Adobe Creative Suite for our Macs, but I'm still uncomfortable supporting software which requires activation.
Nothing good will come to us because of it: A lower price? Better margins for Adobe? Lower pirating rates? The only thing that affects those of us who use the software are negatives, like potential problems down the road if the computers crash hard or get upgraded.
We even still use Adobe PageMaker, so believe me when I say that can see this being a thorn in our side for many a year. I'll probably buy the upgrade eventually, but only once I've seen how the new features will directly and substantially benefit our workflow.
Because of the activation requirement, I'll likely wait a year to upgrade to CS2 instead of waiting just a few months.
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bt said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I agree with the activation. You have 30 days to do it, it takes a couple of moments, and you're not selling your soul or anything.
If you buy it legit, what's the big deal with taking a moment to activate it?
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nezromatron said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Great! Another system that will be a pain to everyone but the true pirates who will find a way around it.
Thanks Adobe, for making paying customers feel like criminals.
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Jack Beckman said 12:47AM on 7-09-2005
Volume licenses are exempt - they have a version that doesn't require activation.
bt, the problem with activation is that it often punishes the innocent. I sent my PowerBook in to fix the battery latch. Apple replaced the logic board and hard drive, too, for reasons known only to them (all under warranty). Even though I had a full disk backup, my iTunes authorization was wiped out. At least with iTunes it was somewhat easy to get back (took a couple of days, and I had to de-authorize another machine that I use less).
The 30 day grace period helps( you should be able to complete an important project), but if you wind up having to beg someone on the phone to get re-activated, that won't make you more likely to buy that company's products in the future.
I understand Adobe's problem - I saw a joke on "The Onion" last year where they had the headline "Someone Actually Pays for Photoshop". So they are in a bit of a bind. I just hope this system is smooth, as there are several new features I can really use and will probably upgrade.
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Chris K said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
The activation was immediately cracked for Photoshop CS, and it will be immediately cracked for CS2, as well.
"Casual copying" these days is NOT someone grabbing the EXE off their work computer. It's someone grabbing an ISO off a P2P network. And anybody who does that already has the crack.
This will result in ZERO sales for Adobe, and plenty of grief for customers.
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David said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
The *idea* of activation isn't bad and I have no real problems with it. The *reality* of activation is something else again - as in when the real world gets in the way. Let me illustrate with a story:
I had a string of bad luck with my PC a couple months back. My hard drive died suddenly giving me a very busy weekend getting my system back up with a new Seagate drive. I had to activate Windows and it was painless. Just a couple short weeks later the new drive gave me a SMART warning (thankfully!) and I backed up the drive before sending it off to Seagate. A few days later I reinstalled my software and this time Windows activation failed.
I knew I was in trouble as soon as I finished telling my sad story to the MS 'activation support' person. A long pause ensued before he told me each computer in my house required its own copy of Windows. I got no where with him and when I demanded to talk to a supervisor *she* wasn't any more help. I offered to fax my paperwork from Seagate as proof and she wasn't sure if the office had a fax. She said she'd call me back. She didn't.
The next day I started over again and my account was obviously flagged because as soon as I gave my account information the 'customer service' rep's voice changed from pleasant to accusatory. To make a long story short, I finally got to the supervisor's supervisor who knew how to receive a fax and accepted the Seagate paperwork as proof that I wasn't a criminal. However, that conversation ended with a veiled warning that in the future I shouldn't expect to get another activation.
If this is how Adobe treats its customers it will open the door to a competitor. I've always upgraded my Adobe products as soon as they were announced. Not this time.
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Brian said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I've had to reactivate over the phone with WinXP at least 4 times (reformatting is fun!) and it's never taken more than a second. I just tell them before they even ask that I had to reinstall and they don't give me any hassle.
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Michael Str? said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I agree that activation is not especially evil, it's just, well, kind of pointless.
CS2 will be cracked within a few hours of its release. A few days later it will be available on all the P2P networks.
With PhotoShop in particular, registration won't help a bit. It's one of the most pirated pieces of software in the world. I am a student, and everyone I know has it - but nearly nobody has paid for it.
The problem is, when you are a student or just a casual user, there is no way in the world you can really afford to buy a copy of PhotoShop, anyway.
It's just too easy to explain away the fact that you are comitting a crime by saying to yourself: "Hey, I could never afford that software anyway, so it's not as if I took anything away from them, right?"
I'm not saying that's a good thing. I just think that making valid users jump through hoops that even the most unsophisticated "pirate" will never even hear about is not a good idea...
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Jorge Gomez said 8:27PM on 12-11-2005
I agree with Michael, Software (specially Photoshop) is totally unbuyable by students, specially if you don't intend to use it for commercial purposes, photoshop in my case doesn't pays by itself, I don't get any money selling stuff I create there. If I were one of those companies I would sell a student edition (like microsoft office) or sell adobe cheaper, I guess that a lot more people would buy it if it only cost 99.99. Finally, Adobe has to rethink their strategy, since open source is gaining terrain everywhere. About the new activation scheme, give a 13 year old somewhere in Finland 2 hours with the program and we'll all have CS2 in ours macs.
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Laurie said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Adobe has pretty generous academic pricing. Students can buy Photoshop for $299 and the entire CS Suite for $399. Furthermore, if you gain absolutely no benefit from it - why do you need it to begin with?
Comments like some of those above prove my theory that most people who pirate or crack software do so just because the CAN. The vast majority of people who have a pirated copy of Photoshop on their computer have no real reason to use the software to begin with. News flash: top-shelf software isn't your /right/.
If every person who says "that's it, i am never buying XYZ's WidgetShop again!" actually walked the walk instead of just talking the talk, MAYBE XYZ Company would take a very small hit in their bottom line. But most of you won't and you know it. For those of you who do/will - go for it. Quark is still around despite how much everyone gripes about them and Adobe isn't going anywhere. Whatever point you're trying to make, it isn't working. The masses aren't switching to GIMP any time soon. I'm not saying that's good or bad - it's just the way things are.
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nezromatron said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I don't know what kind of budget you had as student but for myself and others, spending 300-400 on software meant eating ice water for dinner.
I see nothing wrong with student piracy. Because the ones that use it to the fullest will likely gain employment which requires the tool. At that point they will be using licensed, paid for copies. A company will only lose money through piracy if the person pirating is fully able to pay for the product to begin with. If I can't afford it then I won't buy it and Adobe gets no money from me. How is that different from me just pirating a copy?
I can respect Adobe for trying to protect their IP, but we all now that the people least affected by these measures are the people that Adobe is trying to stop.
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Michael Str? said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Laurie,
Sorry, but you are not making much sense :-) Read above posts again. Nobody here said that they are not going to buy CS2 just because of a phone call they are going to have to make.
What some people think, however, is that it's completely unnecessary and won't make even the tiniest noticeable dent in piracy statistics.
Also, neither I nor anybody else said that we know people who have PhotoShop on their computers without actually needing it. PhotoShop is the standard in image processing. Try finding worthwile tutorials and books for any other software, it's much harder.
cynical
By the way, the sad truth is this: people are not switching to the GIMP in droves because there is a free-as-in-beer alternative - PhotoShop.
/cynical
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mike said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Don't get me started on quark. For some odd reason our company let secrataries use xpress. Fine. Activation via web works on the mac but not on the pc. Care to guess on what platform most of the 30 installs are? I figured out how to get around calling india for the 128 digit activation code--bypass the proxy. Why the mac interacts differently with the proxy is anyones guess.
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glad said 5:18PM on 6-16-2005
I can't see what all the whining is about if photoshop is too expensive for some, then why not buy Photoshop Elements it's that simple and has all the features you'll probably need and use.
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BAS said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
LOL, Jorge that is so true. I can't wait to get my hands on the new CS2. MMMM. Gonna be so good. I don't use it to make money though, I use it for my own personal picture editing, photochopping, and just playing around for fun, not making any money off it whatsoever. It's not worth it to buy for me, since I'll never get my money's worth just by making my teeth whiter, lol.
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Brian Sniffen said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
This is a significant change in Adobe's licensing. Now, I must tell Adobe who I am and where my computer is in order for the program to continue functioning. That's valuable information to me, and I'm not interested in selling it to them.
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Robert said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
And how long will we be able to call them up and get an authorization? Three years? Four? Five?
After which our stupidly expensive software suite will be not just obsolescent, but absolutely worthless.
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Jack said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I can't believe how many people are complaining about copy protection nowdays. The supposed "hassle" factor is trivial at best. Most people will never have to deal with the issues that one might have when a logic board is upgraded and the serial number clashes with the new logic board serial number.
And as much of a hassle as there might seem to be to *GASP* get on the phone and talk to people, it's painfully trivial in contrast to any other time one needs to talk to a company. I've done it dozens of times while working on (forgive me) Windows machines and if your patient, all is good.
If you have a legit copy, all is good.
And while most are protesting Laurie jumping to conclussions about people pirating stuff and whining afterwards, I have to agree. Nobody I know legitimately has copies of legit software ever complains about stuff like that.
Move along folks. Complaining about Adobe protecting it's product from theft is about as productive as complaining about how difficult it is to get money out of a bank if you don't have something silly like proper identification.
I'm against an Orwellian state where everyone can track anything about anyone, but I think that Adobe--like every software vendor--has every right to protect their investment.
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Collin said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
for those saying they need to pirate Photoshop CS for their personal photos and the like: you are why Adobe makes Photoshop Elements. It does everything even an advanced intermediate user needs. And the interface is the same, so when you really need the full power version, you'll already know the program.
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b said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Collin, it's just the whole mental thing that you own it. It's like saying you own a Ferarri but live on a small island with no roads, just the dock. Or something... get it? It's why everyone else I know who has it, just to say they do.
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