[MW Forums]

With the release of Creative Suite 2 (CS2) on Monday, Adobe Systems Inc. will also introduce activation for its entire CS2 product line. Activation is a process the customer must complete sometime during the first 30 days of use in order to verify that the product is using a valid serial number. Adobe says they are not changing the way they do business, rather enforcing the terms of the license agreement, which says the product can be installed on only two machines. more

[boomw]

'Agreement' is so interesting a word, kinda like 'election' in the context of a dictatorship. No, Adobe should be paid, of course. Photoshop may be the quintessence of the 'killer app'. I would be interested to see some follow-up as to how this policy affects sales, piracy, and profits for Adobe. One often hears the story behind the beginning of a new anti-piracy campaign, but rarely does one hear the results. Keep us posted.
B.

[Jim Dalrymple]

I'll do that

[SeaFox]

While Adobe may have initiated a way to activate and deactivate it's products, the article fails to mentions what happens when something is simply "lost".
If someone sells a machine and forgets to deactivate their software first, reformats the hard drive, has a hard drive failure or, the two scenarios mentioned in this article: has their laptop stolen or distroyed, how can they reclaim their licence back?
In the iTunes Music Store, you can call Apple and have a machine "deauthorized" there. Will the same be the case for Adobe and the new Creative Suite?

[Jim Dalrymple]

Yes, it's the same basic situation. If there is ever a time when you cannot access your computer to deactivate, you simply call Adobe and they will do it for you.
Jim

[altivec]

Adobe has just lost one sale.
I am one of those so called "honest" users that just will not put up with this crap. I refuse to support any software that uses activation. Macromedia has already lost me as a customer as I haven't upgrade dreamweaver or Freehand since they introduced activation almost 2 years ago. I guess Adobe Is next in line. Activation only punishes the "honest" user and does nothing to solve the piracy problem. The losers that Pirate will always find away to do so.
I own hundreds of applications and upgrade my computer almost every time Apple intros a new powermac. It is already a daunting task installing all my software on it every time I get a new machine. I can only imagine if I had to deal with the hassle of deactivation and activation for all of them too.
I am sorry but this is not the route I want to see the software industry go, so I will not support it. I guess now would be a good time for some one to introduce competition for photoshop. My photoshop CS anf GoLive CS should be good for a few more years but in the mean time I will be looking for other alternatives.

[ATX]

Is it going to be like Macromedia MX 2004 suite of software? There's a limit to the number of production activation and transfer licence. Once they are used up, you're locked out by the software you owned. Kinda f@#k right?

[SPOOF]

Considering I am now entering the real work force, rather than being a student and having access to software under educational license on other computers, I will no longer consider buying this new software either, though I had budgeted to do so.
One can't help but wonder if they will also do this to corporate licenses, which would be complete and utter hell for those that have to set up and clone lab computers in an educational institution, or continually upgrade machines in a pro graphics shop.
If they wish to keep their customers, hopefully they will re-think this. Not everybody will allow their production machines to be connected to the internet at all, either...due to security (and on the PC side, virii too).

[mmcgann11]

For me..a magazine editor and owner of the Creative Suite CS, I'm going to watch this carefully.
I became an InDesign person because of Quark's activation for 6.0. It was incredibly badly implemented and it took months before it would work right, before finally, an hour on the phone with someone in india before it would activate. And then when I had a hard drive failure and needed to replace it, once again, it wouldn't activate and again, another hour on the phone with India more time with a company that treats its customers like it hates them.
Finally, when I bought a new G5 last year, Quark refused to activate my copy. Refused to activate a very expensive copy of software. Yes, that's right, refused.
That was when I got off the Quark bus I'd do pages in crayon before spending another cent with Quark. I have a legacy version of Quark 5.0, legally mine and purchased, that I use to open archive files to down convert them to Xpress 4.0 for use with InDesign, but thankfully it is rarely used now.
I've used activated products before without much of a hassle I don't use my stuff on more than one computer and I don't loan it out to buddies. Too many years of writing about the old Software Publishers Association, I guess, to be willing to pirate stuff. And as a writer especially in the Internet age I understand the value of protecting one's copyrights and IP and getting paid for your hard work.
As long as Adobe supports this properly, both in terms of how it designs it and backs it up in terms of customer service ( a 10-minute call to activate or reactivate with some one who speaks intelligible English, regardless of where are), I'll happily upgrade to CS2. But you can be sure I'm going to wait a number of months before doing so, to see exactly how the activation issue works and is supported. I can't risk not publishing because a company doesn't bother to get its anti-piracy protection right, as I went through with Quark.
Hopefully, Adobe gets it right. But we'll see.
Mike McGann
Editor In Chief
Gotham Baseball magazine
Recovering tech writer and former Codies judge

[Jamus]

I see no mention of Adobe's corporate license activation plans. Forcing software activation on John Q. User at home is one thing, but activation can be a HUGE pain for corporations and those who purchase large blocks of licenses. Most of the time the vendor company forgoes the activation on those particular licenses, but i see no mention of that here with Adobe.

[Steve_S]

In reply to:

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I am sorry but this is not the route I want to see the software industry go, so I will not support it.

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I hate to say it, but I'm pretty much in the same boat. I've upgraded to the latest Adobe CS software and have always stayed current, not so much because I needed to, but rather because I wanted to and I wanted to support companies that do nice work.
That said, this is a new level of hassle for us "honest customers". I reformat my HD and reinstall software for major OS releases (soon again for Tiger). I don't want to go through this authorizing / deauthorizing process. While I'm sympathetic to piracy issues, I'm tired of the extra hassles for honest customers. Hopefully, Adobe will see the light and back off on this issue. If not, here's hoping that Apple (or someone else) comes out with the next Photoshop killer.
Steve

[OM_user]

Agreed. I really hope they don't go this route with corporate and volume licenses. The whole purpose of those types of licenses is so the person deploying systems doesn't have to concern themselves with activation or individual serial numbers etc. If they force this on VLAs, it will be a pain in the @ss!
I can sort of understand it for individual licenses, but with their corporate and large volume users, I hope Adobe has enough sense to stay away from this, or come up with something far better.

[spimster]

In reply to:

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Adobe says they are not changing the way they do business...

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... and then the article is nothing but the CHANGES
I'm not stupid .... I'll bet the rest of you aren't either (at least most aren't).
Don't lie to us to make us feel better about ... for christssake Adobe, you're not running for office.
Personally I don't care too much about the activation, as long as it works.
But call it what it is. It is indeed a change in the way you do business.
Hopefully a quick, easy change; but a change nonetheless.

[mcdawson]

Does anyone know if this is truly "per-machine", not just "per-OS"? I, as a software developer, typically install a new OS (Panther, Jaguar, and will for Tiger) on its own drive. I typically "activate" all my softare for each system, so when I'm testing in that OS version, I can still use my apps. So I may have 3 "activations" spread across 3 hard drives, but its all still the same machine.