Adobe's "Free CS 2 Download" ...debacle or Publicity stunt?

[Arshes Nei]

This discussion is not about where to pirate Photoshop.

I'm sure some of you know about tech blogs site advertising CS2 for Free, and people in a download frenzy to grab the older software. It only works on Power Macs, and Installing the CS2 suite for Windows users can be troubling.

What had happened is that Adobe stopped using the activation servers for CS2 (or technical glitch as they have stated). They gave out a download area and at the time all you needed was an Adobe ID to download the software. From what I understand, early on is that you actually got a unique serial (can someone confirm that early on?) and could use the product if your machine could handle it.

Of course people went into a download frenzy, while older software CS2 is still pretty good. Later several statements came out, some ambiguous and some conflicting.

Terri Stone:

I don't think you have to worry about Adobe coming after you for this, union_bug.

As soon as our execs have approved an official statement on this issue, I or another Adobe staffer will post it here.

To Dov Isaacs

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don’t require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See <http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1114930>.

To the Ambiguous Blog statement. Of "OOPS"

"Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over 7 years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems. But to ensure that any customers activating those old versions can continue to use their software, we issued a serial number directly to those customers. While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, we did it to help our customers.

I'll go with they didn't intend to release it for free. I am just curious though how others feel if they clarified it well enough that it shouldn't be downloaded?

To make this more confusing "free cs2" leads to a Direct Download of CS2 products on Adobe's site (It's like a top 5 listing right now).
The earlier premise of getting an Adobe ID no longer applies.

The downloads are listed along with serial numbers. However, as I wanted to see if confirmed, these serials are not unique. Also even if you use your Adobe ID for download it will list you as the owner of CS2.

So ...what are your thoughts about this? Let CS2 go as a freebie? Should Adobe just shut down the page?

[Velocity Kendall]

thoughts... meh

[Elwell]

Art Technica: Adobe Almost Does Something Amazing By Accident.

[Velocity Kendall]

you have to admire their cleverness making photoshop so easy to crack, effectively giving it out free and so addicting an entire generation to it.. and living large on the ones that grew up and buy commercial versions. at least thats what i like to imagine st seetharam narayanan was up to, and saw it was good.

[Nemome]

Mh, why not?
Now people who would have searched for a download on the net are going to download this older version because you don't have any troubles.

For Adobe this does mean that (or at least in my opinion) people are going to download CS2 and PERHAPS upgrade to a newer photoshop sooner or later legally.
Otherwise most people would have searched for an illegal photoshop download, which is in most of the cases the newest photoshop available.

Another point could be that softwares like Gimp, PaintshopNet (or however the software was called), PaintToolSai, ... are getting more and more popular so Adobe tries to bind younger users to their software with giving this older version accidently () for free.
When they get used to Photoshop they normally don't want to get used to another software, so sooner or later they also want to upgrade.

Overall I would say this "accident" was a win for Adobe, not a fail.

[Stoat]

The original download page I was pointed to is still working fine, serial numbers and all. I forked over the cash to upgrade my Photoshop from CS3 to CS6 before the deadline, December 31, so that's okay, but I pinched the CS2 versions of InDesign and Illustrator, which I didn't have (you can download apps a la carte). They installed and seem to be working fine (Win7 64-bit pro). My husband couldn't get Photoshop CS2 to run under XP, however.

I also attempted to register them to my main, legit Adobe account. The registration "took" but they don't show up in my list of owned apps. That's not surprising, but I wanted to do everything above board. If Adobe tells me to remove them, I certainly will. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, they're kosher.

[Arshes Nei]

I personally do not see this as Piracy. Adobe may have intended it for their CS2 customers, but once it came out that it wasn't free they could have done more to prevent further downloads

They in fact did the opposite. They made it easier to get the downloads. That download page doesn't say anything about who it is intended for either.

I also don't see any accountability on Adobe's part if it doesn't work on certain computers. It's essentially abandonware for many people. So while people can go to the community for support on their product, I don't think Adobe has to keep customer service for that product. In addition since the serial numbers are the same on that direct download page - it can be flagged as the "free version" and Adobe could charge/deny support for that product. - "Use at your own risk"

By keeping it up on their page, it helps drive traffic to their site, whereas others would pirate the product elsewhere. Good for stocks in their company imo.

I think Adobe is in a "wait and see the impact" approach to see how it fares for their company which is why they've been neutral and well "bizarre" in their prevention of spreading CS2.

Now the question is whether or not to encourage others to download the product on CA. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to enforce it until Adobe makes a more definitive statement about it. So if users tell others to go get the CS2 download for learning. I'm all for it till Adobe states otherwise.

[JFierce]

It works fine on XP. This helps ease some of the pissiness I had from college years back when the school netted me (and by school I mean me with a crappy discount) a shitty photoshop "elements" package before I knew any better. Wasted lots of money for pure shit.

At least this comes with a simple flow option




and yeah they have to be waiting to see how it affects things. No one would be that dumb to STILL have the page up to this day if it was a mistake. First time I saw it was some weird page with just text not even on the Adobe website. Then a friend pointed out they put it back up, ON the adobe website. Thought it must be legit and downloaded.

[Arshes Nei]

The only site that actually has a disclaimer from Adobe is Japan's right now.

The US Site remains the same.

I'm wondering when we'll get n00bs coming in complaining that because they don't have the latest CS their work has problems

[ArtZealot]

I think if they're not smart enough to just leave it as a free download after all of the praise they got for 'accidentally' doing so, then they arent smart enough to come up with such an elaborate publicity stunt in the first place.

[Shorinji_Knight]

I wonder how they expected this to work if it wasn't free... they should have made the page password protected and just give access to the page to those requesting support. I haven't seen any official notice stating their intentions. They seem to be avoiding the subject to see how it turns out, while trying to keep their options open. A lot of people have been saying that their companies got the go ahead from their legal departments about using it commercially... (not that it amounts to anything law advice coming from comments on the internet)

[Arshes Nei]

The only reason I can see a problem with trying to figure out who is a Legit CS2 customer that could have access to the download is that if it was more than a "glitch" but a database corruption for software so old, even Adobe can't verify who legally owns it anymore. (ie they don't have a serial database, and it's hard to verify third party purchasers - someone bought it from a store, online, ebay etc..).

So then if that's what happened I can understand. However, I have to agree that the software is so old at this point, Adobe doesn't have to provide customer support for something so old beyond having the software function without activation since the server is gone.

[Arshes Nei]

Just wanted to let people know if you have Windows 8, you'll encounter issues running CS2.

It will launch the first time fine, but it seems to have a problem with subsequent launches after choosing your registration. Seems like it's looking for a file afterward and will get stuck with the Adobe Launch menu.

[AdrienneRose]

Ha, I tried downloading earlier today. Did not work on my MacBook Pro. Oh well!! PSE 8 will just have to do!!

[sone_one]

afaik adobe nowhere said its for commercial use, so imo its quite the same as a pirated version, untill adobe declares it be used commercially.

[Arshes Nei]

afaik adobe nowhere said its for commercial use, so imo its quite the same as a pirated version, untill adobe declares it be used commercially.

Excuse me? Read the EULA. Because you are also insinuating that the people who had a previous copy of CS2 who needed it in the first place are pirates.

[sone_one]

Because you are also insinuating that the people who had a previous copy of CS2 who needed it in the first place are pirates.

wtf? are you drunk?

im not! just saying that imo you might still run into legal problems if you use those commercially, because i nowhere read adobe stating these are perfect commercial versions ment to be used by people who havent had previously bought cs2. have you? then quote it. and stop that bs.

[Shorinji_Knight]

Actually, I think the lack of disclaimer constitutes consent for commercial use... but I'm not a lawyer. A lot of people have been requesting that Adobe make an official statement to clarify the legal ambiguities here, and as of yet they have responded in silence, while making the product available password free to everyone. It's been a month now; I don't think they would win any legal action they might bring against the multitude of good intentioned downloaders who thought they were allowed.

[sone_one]

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

nothing ive read contradicted that.

[Arshes Nei]

wtf? are you drunk?

im not! just saying that imo you might still run into legal problems if you use those commercially, because i nowhere read adobe stating these are perfect commercial versions ment to be used by people who havent had previously bought cs2. have you? then quote it. and stop that bs.

They don't have to fool.

They have asked Adobe to clarify since there is no message in their download page. Just because someone from Adobe makes a statement it is not necessarily the official statement, especially since it is on their forums.

In fact people have chatted with customer service and they get conflicting statements.

The burden is on adobe to put it on the page. As long as they willingly leave it a grey area, it isn't piracy.

[sone_one]

thats exactly where im coming from... its a grey area... and as long as adobe doesnt clarify, youre running the risk of using it illegaly. nothing you or anyone else wants to read into their lack of cohesive statement, changes that.

where i live adobe doesnt prosecute themself... the business police (no clue how this is translated correctly) does. dont know how it works where you live, but i therefore like to operate on a less mushy basis.

[Arshes Nei]

thats exactly where im coming from... its a grey area... and as long as adobe doesnt clarify, youre running the risk of using it illegaly. nothing you or anyone else wants to read into their lack of cohesive statement, changes that.

where i live adobe doesnt prosecute themself... the business police (no clue how this is translated correctly) does. dont know how it works where you live, but i therefore like to operate on a less mushy basis.

It's hard to prosecute someone for using it illegally if their own customer service has told people it's ok to download.

It's more of an ethical issue since illegally, they have the burden of proof. Posting a serial number that can be used anyone online, and the EULA says you can use it as long as you obtained it from Adobe (which basically downloading it is obtaining it).

Calling people pirates for something that is Adobe's responsibility is out of line.

Reputable sites like Snapfiles and PC Advisor also host it saying it's free.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/photoshopcs2.html
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads...ative-suite-2/

[sone_one]

lol ...ok... ill try just once again.

ive been comparing the legal issues of working commercially with those, might be the same as working with a pirated version. not that using those would make you a pirate.

i hope that helped you through your comprehension block, and now get of my back.

[Arshes Nei]

No one has to get off your back. If you don't like the conversation go elsewhere. I'm saying that it's pretty much wrong because even their own staff can't agree or give a definitive statement.

[JFierce]

A) How would adobe know what software you run to make an image, B) Why would they care, C) How do they know if you have a License key or not, an older CS2 etc since their servers to activate it are gone. etc etc. etc. .....

It's too much work on their part for an old outdated product, they'd spend more on bureaucratic bullshit and paperwork than they would ever make. Let alone destroying their PR with their fanbase/customers

[QueenGwenevere]

And who in the world is doing serious commercial work with CS2...

It doesn't even run on modern systems. Hell, it barely ran on my MacBook Pro six years ago.

[Arshes Nei]

And who in the world is doing serious commercial work with CS2...

It doesn't even run on modern systems. Hell, it barely ran on my MacBook Pro six years ago.

There are artists up until a few years ago (and still some current ones) that were still using Painter 6 for serious work. I don't think it matters so much for certain illustrators, but by then the big ones (aka pros) either got current software from employers, promotions etc or just can afford it now.