Adobe's New Subscription Service Goes Live And Is Cracked In Less Than 24 Hours

from the DRM-less-effective-than-leading-deodorant-brands dept

Adobe latest product, the subscription based suite Creative Cloud is cracked and available on torrent sites one day after its release. The torrent is posted on torrent sites such as the Piratebay and is nearly 1.4 GB big. It was posted by an apparently Chinese user. Comments on the torrent report that the software can be installed and works.

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Adobe's products are widely acknowledged to be some of the most pirated software in the world. Not that Adobe has done much to prevent this sort of behavior. True, it has (with the BSA's aid and blessing) "raided" infringing companies and extracted license fees. But it's done nothing at all to make its software more appealing to prospective purchasers. The prices are still astronomical (even more so in many foreign countries) and its steadfast adherence to planned obsolescence means those paying the exorbitant asking price may find themselves with incompatible software a few years down the road.In an effort to combat piracy and lower the admission fee, Adobe has launched a subscription-only platform called Creative Cloud which gives subscribers access to Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Dreamweaver and Fireworks for $30-50/month.In what will come as a surprise to roughly no one, Creative Cloud has already been cracked Adobe claims the software will work for 99 days without an internet verification (although the Cloud phones home once a month) before becoming inoperable. It also requires an internet connection during install, but blocking Adobe's access post-install and applying the crack seems to do the trick.You have to wonder how much was invested in building a DRM scheme that managed to hold out for almost 24 hours. You also have to wonder if this result, combined with any issues the phone-home system may cause forusers down the road, have had any effect on Adobe's future DRM plans. If this crack works, it's like having no DRM at all, which would definitely be a cheaper route to take during development. Any hopes that a dip in piracy would result in a corresponding sales bump have effectively been scuttled.At this point, pushingwith DRM would take the company toward SimCity-esque levels of customer antipathy. Server side-only saves, anyone? Grayed-out menu selections and tools that only work when the software is in touch with headquarters? Accepting the inevitable would save Adobe money, time and aggravation. Or maybe, deep down, Adobe doesn't care. This cracked software is building them a future customer base that will be addicted to its software because they got their first hit for free

Filed Under: cracks, drm

Companies: adobe