[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Again, and I am just playing devil’s advocate, how can a company guarantee that they will be successful for your entire life?”

They can’t. That’s exactly why I don’t want to depend on their activation servers for access to my files.

[Jeremy Garchow] “You can take your files with you to a valid station and use them, without penalty, and Adobe does not own your files. “

Right. I just don’t want to depend on Adobe for validation.

It’s really simple:

Current model –

I pay Adobe a big chunk of money all at once. Adobe provides software product I can use as long as I want without any further payment. 3, 5, 10 years, as long as my hardware runs it, it still works. My cost is fixed.

New model –

I pay Adobe a small chunk of money every month. Adobe provides software I can only use as long as I keep paying. If I stop paying, the software and access to my files goes poof. My cost is unlimited.

I understand why agencies might like this model. I notice that most advocates for the Cloud seem to be attached to agencies or facilities. If I was in that camp, I probably would feel different too. But speaking as a freelancer, Creative Cloud doesn’t make sense and is not a good value for me. From what I’m seeing online, there are many others like myself who agree. I still want to give Adobe my money. I would even pay a fair premium for perpetual use. There are lots of ways Adobe can create a win-win if they’re really listening.

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Is there any pro level software that you pay for and use that has a terms of service that does not absolve the creating company from change?”

My concern is not about change, it’s about the explicit right to terminate service for life.

I don’t own any software – either professional or consumer – where the vendor has the right and the ability to cut off my access to my files. That’s the difference with Creative Cloud.

Here’s an example of the consequence from NBC News:
https://nbcnews.to/YxgoYV

It’s one thing when something like this happens with consumable media. It’s another thing entirely when it’s your life’s work and your ability to keep working.

It’s easy to write this example off as an outlier, but with over 10 million users worldwide (for Photoshop alone as of 4 years ago) being forced into the Cloud, problems like this are inevitable.

I do feel better knowing there’s backward compatibility with CS6. I’m very glad I own a perpetual license for it.

I agree with you and Craig that trust cannot be a factor. We’ve all learned that the hard way. That’s why I will continue to let Adobe know my feelings about the need for more flexible licensing options.

My point in raising this issue is also to flag the fact the we’re a minority here on the COW. Photography and design users far outnumber those of use who use CS tools in post. I’m trying to get a sense of of how this radical change is viewed outside our particular bubble and from all I can gather, it is not going over well at all.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Clint Wardlow] “Copyright can work against the artist sometimes, especially one who can’t afford lawyers to insure he gets the best deal.”

Well said. That’s why this is not a black and white issue.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Frank Gothmann] “If the content is sitting on their servers and not your local drive, what else are they supposed to do with it? They’ll give you a grace period to download it and then delete it. Same would apply to your website if you cancel your hosting with them.”

You’re missing the point. If they decide to terminate your service or ban you from membership (which these terms allow them to do at any time for any reason) you will not be able to open any of the files on your hard drive created with their service, because the software that opens them will not run.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Andrew Kimery] “Those terms aren’t very unique or surprising are they? All companies reserve the right to change things w/o notice.”

Of course. But what got my attention was this line:

19.3 Termination or Suspension of Services. Adobe may also terminate or suspend all or a portion of your account and/or access to the Services for any reason (subject to Additional Terms for certain Services). Except as may be set forth in any Additional Terms applicable to a particular Service, termination of your account may include: (a) removal of access to all offerings within the Services; (b) deletion of Your Content and Account Information, including your personal information, log-in ID and password, and all related information, files, and Materials associated with or inside your account (or any part thereof); and (c) barring of further use of the Services.

These terms also apply to access to any work produced with these services.

Are you comfortable with that? I’m not.

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Bill Davis] “One can perform search, sort and find operations on the NAME of a color. But NOT the color itself.

I don’t know of a single database that has the facility to allow the user to click on a color and use, say, RGB values to derrive a subset.

It’s certainly possible, I’ve just never seen a system that’s implemented that type of search function. So what’s the point of basing your practices on a thing that has this type of limited global utility?.”

Simple, just associate a label with a color, for example:

green = good
red = reject
purple = B-roll

Search and sort on the label assigned to the color. Problem solved. I’ve worked this way this for years and it works great. Best of both worlds! 🙂

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Chris Harlan] “By the reasoning of the cartoon, several centuries of copyright law should be voided. I think that’s a ridiculous proposition.”

Chris, don’t get me wrong. I very much value the idea of intellectual property too. But I also value fair use, the public domain, and the human tradition of shared culture — a tradition far far older than the current notion of copyright.

I don’t think Nina Paley’s intention with this video is say copyright shouldn’t exist, rather it’s to question how it should co-exist with the public domain in a digitally-enabled culture. The Bono Copyright Act has nothing to do with protecting society.

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[David Lawrence]

[Andy Field] “Hey, I can’t afford a Mercedes – guess I’ll go to the lot and steal it. Would have paid for it if I had enough money.”

Andy, with all due respect, it’s a bit more complicated then your analogy. Digital and physical properties are very different. And copying is an inherent function of all general-purpose computers. Laws and social norms are still in flux. Again, I do not advocate piracy. If you make money with software, buy it from the developer. It’s only fair. Still, this issue is way more complex then you’re making it out to be.

Let me play you a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4

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[David Lawrence]

What I find interesting is that by eliminating perpetual licensing, Adobe actually creates a new incentive for piracy. The same hack that eliminates reliance on Adobe’s authentication servers is also a safeguard against future price gouging and guarantees future access to files. I’m not advocating piracy here, but if a goal of Creative Cloud is to combat illegal copies, I think it may have an unintended opposite effect.

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

Lots of dissatisfaction throughout the Mac community. People are pissed. Many thoughtful comments here:

https://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/applications/index.html#d08may2013

_______________________
David Lawrence
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