Having recently bought some Adobe products and not yet activated them, I have an observation, especially in light of the recent Fauxtography events (Iran, Reuters, etc.)
I did some searching and read some articles about Adobe, and here are my conclusions.
1. Activation, like gun illegality, primarily concerns those who are concerned about legality to begin with. Thus it is only likely that those who are concerned with legitimacy to begin with will concern themselves with the process of registration and activation.
2. A quick and cursory search of the internet should reveal that the software itself has been cracked for several months, if you’re willing to risk a Trojan infection (read: people with an extra old, cheap computer can use it to run those keygens.)
3. What prevents someone from cracking a piece of software is usually time and ingenuity. Those are basically all that a terrorist (who is well educated usually by Western universities) has.
4. Adobe offers the FULL software in the form of trial download. The only thing necessary to actually steal the software would be to hack the activation system.
5. This kind of lazy security – which is typical of the Western response to piracy, terrorism, etc. Is not only ineffective but actually serves to enable and encourage our enemies. Allow me to explain in the next point.
6. Were I a malcontent, I could, because of Adobe’s lazy approach, download all of their software for free. Now, I couldn’t use it, though i certainly could use a large number of fake ID’s to keep using free trials. Or I could use my time and ingenuity to hack the system to get it to work, full, for free. (Fortunately I’m a paying customer. Maybe they’ll say me writing pieces like this scares them and encourages them to waste resources on security.)
7. This is, again, part and parcel of the common Western misunderstanding of security. Security of all forms is in the manner of disincentives. Since it is impossible, as we learned seven years ago, to actually be completely secured from damage while still interacting with the world, what can we do? The common misunderstanding tries to create perfect security by degrees, misunderstanding of course that it is impossible and thus no number of steps (read: types or grades of DRM) will ever create a working or near-working solution. Like security checkpoints, only in times of serious duress does it do anything but cost a lot of money (in this case that could be spent making the software less bloated) and hinder honest people.
8. This method has the disadvantage of making people who are, their actual honesty nonwithstanding, TRYING to be honest believe that their honesty is being taken advantage of. (And they have clear evidence of it in heaps)
9. In regards to software, if profit motive is cited, executives should be reminded that the majority of pirates – think of teenagers – could not afford the software to begin with. (Think of what offering the trial version online for free is doing to Adobe in their misled notion of security?) This means that while there are some pirates who would rather steal the software instead of buying it, most software pirates steal because they want something they could not afford. Unless something is taken from Adobe – like, uh, bandwidth in this case – they have no real case that they are losing profit. In offering the software for free download in trial, they are allowing themselves to have something ‘tangible’ stolen by pirates. Perhaps they do this on purpose, to create an excuse if needed.
10. The activation / registration model devalues the software and thus the intellectual property itself. What they are saying is what is worth money is not the effort and skill it took to produce the software, but the right to use it. They are trying to turn software into a plantation. (More or less.)
11. This introduces a problem, of course. This centers the ability of Adobe to maintain it’s license (the property) on it’s ability to prevent people from breaking it’s key system. Take a look at the big city in high-crime areas. That’s what you’re looking at. In most places doors are unlocked, etc. Most people live in a world where trust and relationship determine these limitations. I do not refrain from taking stuff from my neighbor because his key system prevents me from doing so. I don’t because I respect him, whether or not he locks his doors.
12. Adobe’s security approach, while when faced with scrappy teenagers and terrorist pirates abroad may have an appropriate face, to the average person who deals based on trust, it is a violation of the trust of ownership. It would be like if the government stopped allowing people to buy property but only to timeshare it and pay based on it’s approximated value for the activity performed on it. The result would not be more money for the government (even though immediately that would occur) the result would be the devaluation of all property under that scheme.
13. The activation/registration model also relies on the honesty of the customer for identity as well. For anyone who WOULD be honest there is no point, and for those most troublesome, honesty can not be assumed. When we look at security certificates, just having one is not proof of security: say ‘Istealyourdata.com’ is 128-bit encrypted, if they’re selling your email address the encryption just means that they’re the only one getting it.
14. The revelation is twofold: firstly, the real effect of Adobe’s plan is to force those who they ‘addicted’ to their software through lax policy regarding volume licenses and use in classrooms, combined with their apparent monopoly, to more or less extort as much money as possible from these people. These people are willing to buy, thus Adobe cares about them. Secondly, it is that they actually don’t care about the real pirates. However, honesty about this stance is unacceptable, firstly because it runs counter to the common experience of ownership and secondly it admits that they don’t have any higher motives (google for instance, loves playing make-believe.)
15. The effect of this choice, however, runs counter to our national security in any meaningful fashion. In fact, it runs counter to –any– nation’s security, allowing easy access for the dishonest to tools that are invaluable in information warfare.
16. In the end, they will prove that value is not ‘unlimited’ – i.e. money does not grow on trees. Value adding is not infinite. You can not take the same thing and get an unlimited amount of money from it by convincing everyone it is valuable. Capitalism works in that there is real value behind the claims. Our current recession comes from decades of Kool-Aid drinking – believing that your thoughts shape reality, more or less.
It isn’t that you can’t create unlimited wealth. It’s just that it is a complex, organic process that involves real value, relationships, trust, and interdependence.
Investing in real estate securities that are based on the gains in value of real estate whose value gains based on the possibility of richer people coming around to buy it whose riches are based on gains in investments… well, you get the idea.
17. Adobe will at all costs need to stop offering their software for download with key activation. But don’t let me tell it, the market will say it soon enough. That is, if big Content doesn’t get the government to support their Byzantine schemes with force. They’re kind of like CAIR, but less whiny and more shiny.
18. Of course, this all stems from my antiquated notion that I’m paying for the software. Apparently software has become worthless, (At least until reality sets in again) but what is worth money is the ability to imagine that you can be rich. Like the airlines (bastions of success) we can imagine that the money is there for us to take while treating our customers like crap.
Please stay classy, Adobe.
I’m waiting to activate until I can be certain that I will not be defrauded by Adobe. Granted it will probably be by accident, but still: “Adobe Software Activation” – much like “Consumer Protection Enablement.” Yes, we already know you don’t care about real piracy.
Also see: http://ping.fm/7fJ2e
