[Reggie Fowler]

Just an interesting note. I purchased Photoshop CS2 from Adobe. After entering the serial # thus allowing me to install the application onto my computer, I was then FORCED to Register with Adobe. If i didn't Register, photoshop would turn into a trial version within 15 days.

Keep in mind, this was after i entered the serial # which is required just to install the program.

Then an Adobe message popped up saying that it's necessary to Register the photoshop to stop users from using the same serial number at the same time.

I guess they beefed up security on this one. Just an interesting note.

[JHromadka]

Yeah Adobe announced the product activation scheme when it announced the CS2 ship date.

[Tyler McAdams]

The end is coming! Nuclear testing in Korea now this...

[Mr. Blur]

I hate to say it (okay, not really...) but it is another sign of the times...product activation - way to go all you people that insist your pirating doesn't hurt anyone.

[bmedina]

And it's already been cracked before almost anyone has it. Good thing Adobe wasted their money on "protection" from pirates.

[eggman]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blur

I hate to say it (okay, not really...) but it is another sign of the times...product activation - way to go all you people that insist your pirating doesn't hurt anyone.

I don't know that product activation is an implication of piracy, except obliquely. Not that I, a software developer from way back, would defend piracy. But your point that ones actions have unintended consequences works both ways, of course.

A long, long time ago... before piracy reached the epidemic levels it has now... software manufacturers were using a variety of anti-piracy schemes, such as dongles, putting bad blocks on installation floppy disks that needed to be in the drive in order for your software to start... most of these were such a pain to the registered users that these schemes were abandoned by most software vendors. But the default position, even before piracy had proven to be a real expense, was to try to preempt the possibility of it.

Then, at a certain point in the late '80s. it became fashionable to suggest that good customer support and quality software documentation were the royal road to preventing piracy. Sure, let folks circulate copies of your software... consider it an advertising expense. Besides, you'll only lose a small percentage of sales because while it's cheap to copy software, the software is intrinsically less useful without the value added by our wonderful printed manuals. And what about our wonderful customer support? Those things alone will justify the cost of the software for any serious users.

And that may have been true, for a time. But the software companies usually did such a bad job with their documentation that the after-market for GOOD documentation made the manufacturer's own manuals superfluous. And today we find ourselves with pro applications that don't ship with virtually any printed documentation (I remember when all the manuals for MS Office was 3 feet wide!) and what docs there are today also come in .PDF on disc : easy to copy. As for customer support... don't make me laugh.

And yet when software companies reduced expenses by downgrading customer support... and not packing bulky printed manuals, did their customers see any cost benefits? In a word: nope. But they inadvertantly made piracy easier and more desirable.

Piracy is exploiting a loophole in the social contract that says that you should pay someone for their labor. Then again, offshoring is also a violation of the social contract that says employers have responsibilities to their employees and communities. It seems like everyone gets hurt when they are exclusively seeking their own advantage instead of broadening their self-interest to include secondary and tertiary effects of their behavior.

[Randman]

I didn't have any problems installing it in Panther (I just upgraded PhotoShop) but with Tiger, I have to click on the activation button the first time I've opened it. And I've had a few funny screens pop up when opening it now. It works but I guess the activation thingie is a little wonky with Tiger.