Activation bug!

Are you sure you used your second activation? I understand that a reactivation on the same computer will not count as a new activation, merely a reactivation of the initial one.

You are correct Don. There’s a diff between an activation event and a re-activation.

….as well as between Photoshop CS and CS2. Ctein, which version are you using that you had the activation trouble with? CS is quite a bit more vulnerable than CS2.

I think I have an activation problem. I recently downloaded and installed updates for my xp. Now Photoshop opens everything and then at the very end it doesn’t open up. I reinstalled and it did the same thing. I am glad to know that maybe the updates caused the problem but I don’t know how to undo it. I don’t think I ever registered my photoshop 7.0. I downloaded it from some website a couple of years ago. Do you have any advise for me? Please……. Karen

don’t think I ever registered my photoshop 7.0. I downloaded it from some website a couple of years ago. Do you have any advise for me? Please……. Karen

Buy yourself a legal copy of CS2. Not only will you enjoy the new features, you’ll benefit from the wealth of advice on this forum available to users who are not running pirated copies.

Ctein,

What Adobe would like you to know is that you can have PS activated on up to two machines at the same time, provided only one is in use at any given time. For example, one at work, one at home. Thus, two activation.

You can also transfer an activation from machine to another should you say, upgrade to a new machine. You can contact Adobe about that.

Also, activation is different from re-activation. Activation is the initial process. When things change on your machine, a re-cativation is required. You can have an infinite number of re-activations.

What Adobe doesn’t want you to know is that the re-activation process can be invoked by any number of things. Changes to the machine hardware, clock, other software, doing something as common as performing a system restore. It’s been reported repeatedly that nothing changes on the machine, but that a re-activation is required anyway.

If you’re ok with having to ask permission to use the software you paid a lot of money for, then you’re good to go. Keep in mind that there will be times when re-activation can’t be done through the net or the automated telephone system, and you’ll have to wait on the line to get permission (re-activated) from an Adobe support person directly.

What you experienced is nothing new, and is certainly not a bug. It’s been totally and carefully planned by Adobe. They know it’s frustrated many consumers of their products. They don’t care. They didn’t offer a fix for CS. They didn’t even officially acknowledge it as an issue. They will, however, allow you to purchase the newest version of CS. Kind of like paying to get something repaired that should have worked properly in the first place, right?

A search of this forum should reveal many posts related to this topic.

Side note: remember the analogy of Adobe to GM? GM stock took a major hit yesterday with the announcement of Delphi’s bankruptcy proceedings.

OK Bob, you can make this R/O now. 🙂

a normal OS update should NEVER force you to reregister a program.

Define normal. 😉

Developers create software based on operating systems available to them. Adobe can not see the future. You should feel fortunate that you do not have to wait for Adobe to release a patch because an OS update entirely broke their app. Reactivate and move on. Perhaps Adobe may find numerous reactivations due to OS updates a nuisance for them as well and may modify the system in the next release. Submit a bug report.

I downloaded it from some website a couple of years ago. Do you have any advise for me?

Keep a sharp blade on hand to scrap the barnacles from your wooden leg, mate. Then use a forum username other than your own name to admit that you are doing something illegal on the software publisher’s website. Genius – – pure genius!

Dear Karen,

I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The (maybe) good news is that Photoshop 7 doesn’t involve activation; it should run on any machine you install it in. That doesn’t mean that something in your XP update didn’t break it. That’s always a possibility. But it’s definitely not an activation problem. My recollection is that XP includes a reversion function. Have you tried reverting to the operating system before you installed the patches and see if Photoshop 7 runs again?

The bad news: if you downloaded Photoshop from a web site, you don’t have a legal copy of Photoshop. Adobe never sold it that way. I hope that at least it didn’t cost you any money, because if it did you got ripped off for stolen goods; you got the equivalent of the Rolex watch bought in Times Square for $25 < wry smile >.

But… more good news: legitimate copies of Photoshop 7 can be bought for well under $100. Adobe is actually quite good about letting people transfer ownership of programs (it’s just their activation scheme that sucks big rocks), so if you look around, you ought to be able to find a legitimate copy for not too much money. Note that these will be single copies from individual sellers; if you ever see a vendor offering any of the Adobe programs for prices in the middle two figures as general inventory, they are not legitimate! What you can find is individuals legitimately selling their individual copies, but no one has a storefront where they’ve got hundreds of these for sale.

Good luck!

pax / Ctein
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Dear folks,

Regarding the activation stuff:

Don, Tom and "Yrbk":

I don’t actually *know* whether I used up my second activation; the support person I talked to said that I had, but that doesn’t mean he was right about that. I don’t know any way to check that; just parroting what he told me. Is there a way I can investigate this? I don’t want to slam Adobe for this … any more than I think they really deserve < evil grin >. I’ll be happy to report back and confirm or refute my earlier statement.

Daryl:

Yup, CS2. Actually, the I’ve got the entire Creative Sweet Professional package, not just Photoshop. I doubt that makes a difference, but maybe I should mention that.

Tom:

Regarding the use of the word "bug," I can see there’s a fair semantic quibble here. I know of two uses for the term. One is for code that doesn’t do what the programmer meant it to do. The other is for code that doesn’t do what it is supposed to even if the programmer meant to write it that way. I’m using in in the latter sense.

Arguing from the end-user point of view (not as a programmer, which I gave up for honest work a long time ago < VBG >) activation schemes ideally should NEVER be falsely triggered. I know that’s an impossibility and I don’t expect the ideal, but being triggered by routine manufacturer OS security updates is way beyond the pale. Not acceptable behavior.

Jim:

Oh, not to worry, I’ve moved on. I’ve included a slam about this in my review to be published. I never hang onto a grudge about these things; I get to put them in print! < wicked smile >

And, yes, I did lodge a complaint with Adobe about this.

pax / Ctein
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] =========================================
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legitimate copies of Photoshop 7 can be bought for well under $100

Where? I would question any copy of the program that is priced under $250 – $300. At that price a vendor can sell the version, and an upgrade, and still save the buyer cash.

Dear Don,

I’ve seen copies than I KNOW are legitimate on both eBay and on non-commercial bulletin boards like Craig’s List. I’ve sold copies of Adobe software myself (although not Photoshop 7, as I’m still using that on my Mac under OS 9). I use to get all my Adobe software through the employee discount program, which, as you know, is incredibly inexpensive. Those are always full packages; never upgrades, so I’d get, say, Photoshop 6 and there I’d be with this leftover copy of Photoshop 5.5. Well, I didn’t pay a lot of money for it, and I’m not interested in profiteering, so I would just pass it on to somebody else for what it cost me, plus modest shipping and handling costs.

This is (or least was) completely legitimate. In fact, before I did it I called up Adobe to find out their rules about this, cuz I like to play fair by the companies. Not only did they tell me there was no problem, they asked for my fax number and they immediately faxed me the forms I needed to transfer my serial number over to the new purchaser. So far as they were concerned, as long it remained one owner per sold copy of the program they were happy.

Adobe has been really great about this kind of thing. When my housemate needed a copy of Framemaker 7 for Windows (and we didn’t know anyone working at Adobe) she went to a local used software store and found a copy of Framemaker 3.5 (?) for a whole $30. The proprietor * thought * it was upgradable but was uncertain. Paula decided to take a chance. When she got home, she called Adobe customer support and they said yes, you can upgrade that version and that copy to the current Framemaker is upgradable. But there is something hinky about that serial number, so we’re going to issue you a new serial number that you can use when you buy your upgrade. Just type the new number in instead.

They did, she did, it worked. I hold Adobe customer support in VERY high regard (which is why I think they so badly screwed the pooch with this activation nonsense).

By the way, I just logged onto eBay and saw several copies of Photoshop 7 that I am a 99% certain are legitimate listed for well under $100. I also saw at least one that I have questions about; it might be legitimate, I just can’t tell.

pax / Ctein
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] =========================================
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99% certain is certainly a fine paradox. 😉

When buying software from eBay, be certain that the seller is showing photos of the software that they have to sell, not a JPG swiped from the manufacturer’s web site. Also make sure that the seller has been in business for several months and has plenty of favorable (and visible) feedback. It helps to learn the seller’s physical address before making a purchase. Any seller that does not meet these criteria could very well be selling pirated software.

Y’know? IMHO one of the real shames about pirated stuff apart from all the moral, legal, social and ethical stuff is: it has repressed a legal, legit and honest pre-owned market.

It affects more than the big league players – it hits the honest-joe’s whom may have a different legit market altogether.

But who’s gonna pay 30 for an aged version with legit upgrade path when the market is soaked with cracked stuff at 10? (well, y’know what I mean?)

Dear folks,

Deeb:

Unfortunately too much of what you say is correct. Folks are irrationally risk-averse; they’d rather not buy something at a 10th of its list price if they think there’s even a 1% chance that they could get ripped off. The rip-off rate for eBay is lower than that, and much lower if one pays even a little bit of attention.

On the other hand, I’ve never had a problem finding a buyer (or for that matter a seller) for a piece of software I’ve been involved with. We’re not talking about billion-dollar markets after all; just modest numbers of end-users with spare software looking for folks who need it. I’ve not had difficulty finding folks who would pay $50 or $100 for likely-legit software instead of $10 for probably pirated software. Most folks won’t knowingly buy pirated software!

Or maybe it’s just my honest face < VBG >.

Jim:

"99% certain" is like "60% chance of rain" it’s the assessment of the probability of a certain binary outcome, not an absolute state.

On the other hand it drives me nuts when people talk about something being "nearly unique." We’ve all got our issues .

While I think your criteria are good prudent ones for general purchases on eBay, they’re not necessarily good ones for buying software from individuals. Pirates don’t generally deal in ones and twos. Whereas legitimate used Adobe software is almost always going to turn up in ones and twos.

The sort of person who is likely to be selling legitimate software they have an extra copy of this is just the opposite of what you describe. In fact, the way I would check up would be to look and see what other items there were selling online. If they have got a whole lot of super-cheap software for sale, it’s good to wonder about where they got it from.

In any case, a little investigation never hurts if one is suspicious, and I’d never recommend that people buy stuff blindly. Many of the packages that I saw on eBay when I checked (there weren’t that many, maybe a dozen) were accompanied by lots of information and other references to the seller which means that either someone is going to hell a lot of trouble to make a little bit of money or they’re legit. Almost always it will prove to be the latter.

The only exception I can think of to that would be someone who is in the surplus business, buying out bankrupt stores inventories and reselling it. Those folks exist, but they’re readily identifiable. We’ve got a place here in the Bay Area called Weird Stuff Warehouse which does that and turns up the most incredible bargains on occasion. I remember back in the early 1990’s going down there and finding a whole table full of Adobe True Type fonts (back when fonts cost LOTS of money and every program didn’t come loaded with hundreds of them). I picked up a dozen at $10 apiece. It was all legitimate goods; I checked up on it.

pax / Ctein
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] =========================================
— Ctein’s Online Gallery <http://www.ctein.com>
— Digital Restorations <http://photo-repair.com>
=========================================

Ctein,

I think the issue is more to the point of legality, not necessarily legitimacy.

There are authorized resellers of Photoshop – why can’t you buy previous versions from them? Does Adobe have a program that credits them for old versions sent back? It’s possible that this is the reason why you can’t find older versions – they are only selling a newer version and at the same time "sunetting" older versions.

I don’t think there’s anything illegal about buying a shrink wrapped older version – there may be a violation of terms of distributorship by selling it, but not necessarily buying it.

Also one must consider that to remain legal, as it were, the official process to sell a "used" copy is to transfer the license. Otherwise the original owner retains license, and all it’s benefits. So buying used copies, from a friend, for example, puts you, the buyer, at risk of not being able to register, not being eligible for upgrades, and precludes you, a non-licensed person from using the software.

Of course, this is academic as it goes to the notion of "enforcability".

In addition, there are a rash of sites that offer Photoshop for an incredibly low price. They are carefully worded, and in essence are the owners "backup" copies under "fair use". They tell you that you can’t registrer, or are ineligible for technical support because they are "OEM" versions or whatever.

I’m not commenting on your posture or actions, rather, I’m merely pointing out that there is a system in place to maintain legitimacy and legality, which shouldn’t necessarily be ignored.

Dear "yrbk",

I quite agree that people should play by the rules! I hope I didn’t give the impression otherwise– I thought I was making that very clear.

I did bring up the transfer of serial numbers back in my message of october 13. And all the legitimate individual resales I’ve seen have gone to pains to make sure they state that either the package their selling has never been registered or else it’s never been upgraded so they call transfer the license to the new owner. As I said, Adobe’s happy so long as it’s one owner one at one time for one copy…. and they got paid.

As for what commercial resellers do, I’m not an Adobe dealer so I don’t know what happens to old versions… but regardless of Adobe return policies, you won’t see resellers selling older versions super-cheap because they paid normal wholesale price when they first got them. They’d take a bath on that.

Yeah, regarding those web sites, the pirates always have some cock-and-bull story about how and why they’ve got a zillion copies at super-cheap prices. All of which are crap. That’s why I suggested one criterion for legitimacy was NOT having more than one or two items for sale.

I dunno. Have we run this thoroughly into the ground, yet? Kinda drifted a bit off of activation bugs.

pax / Ctein

Have we run this thoroughly into the ground, yet?

I dunno – I feel a bit stiffled from time to time, so I like to read what I think – you just happened to be the 9th caller, so to speak <grin>.

Dear "yrbk",

No problem, that’s cool. While this is "preaching to the converted" for a lot of us, Karen’s original post makes it clear that some of the members of this Forum honestly don’t know the rules of the game and what’s OK and what isn’t.

If we don’t help enlighten them, who will? It may be a digression, but it was a valuable one, in my ever-so-humble judgement.

pax / Ctein