At this rate my owned outright copy of Adobe that requires no internet access, with hacks, will become a generational heirloom I can pass down to descendants with immersurable value.
Don’t pirate anything you use professionally. You are just begging for a lawsuit and to be treated as radioactive in the industry.
owned outright copy
It’s not piracy if you bought the software and own a permanent license to it.
It is once you start having to “hack” it, as that user claimed.
See, this is the issue; it’s not illegal to turn off my internet, it’s not illegal to block a program from accessing it, and it’s not illegal to run software i paid for.
If that’s a problem to clients then find better clients.
Okay? Just… maybe set aside a bit of money for a lawyer. No reason
Weird hill to die on, friend.
Seconding the request for a shred of precedent for the things 4am mentioned being grounds for litigation
That… isn’t how these kinds of things work?
If there is legal precedent, it is a no brainer. That is why you don’t use pirated software. https://www.technicalactiongroup.ca/these-companies-used-pirated-software-and-lost-millions-of-dollars/ is a random source i found that listed a bunch of legal cases.
But if we are in a grey area based on whatever vague “with hacks” nonsense was going on?
Company sends you a C&D because they decided what you are doing is piracy. They basically say “Give us money and we won’t go to court”. So you either give them money or try to go to court. At which point… setting aside a bit of money for a lawyer would have been a good idea. Wonder where that great advice came from.
The legal system in most countries (arguably all but I am sure there is a weird niche case) is inherently going to favor the large corporation with a team of lawyers on retainer. Which lets them more or less bully individuals and smaller companies to settle out of court which means that precedent is never actually established. That is where emulation generally lives, for example.
No, it isn’t. Hacking means doing something to it to fix a problem. Maybe that’s telling it to ignore an OS version check or something. That’s not illegal and it’s not piracy. You’re allowed to modify software you own. Even if the hack is removing DRM, it still isn’t piracy if you own it. It’s piracy to give it to other people who don’t own it.
The legality of modding, “modding”, and cracking software is still very grey. Arguably intentionally so. Because no company wants to risk a negative ruling and most users aren’t dumb enough to go to court with a fortune 500.
If the above user was really talking about just putting a new splash screen on Photoshop 1.5 from 10 years ago (… actually it would probably be closer to 20 or 30 at this point? Damn…)? Sure… but that is also the territory where using gimp or krita or paint.net in production is a much better idea.
But if those “hacks” are to increment versions or allow for plugins made for later versions of photoshop et al to run? That is where you are adding features you never paid for and where you start needing to be ready to cover your ass if you are profiting off of it because now you are “worth” suing.
And… good luck convincing a judge/jury when your argument is anywhere near as shakey as half the justifications for using pirated software in production in this thread are (I especially love the person who apparently feels that it is the company’s responsibility to sit down with you and explain the license agreement you are… agreeing to).
Learning a skill or even software? Pirate that shit. There is a reason companies like autodesk have REALLY good “free” versions of their software.
Running a smaller patreon and doing light gig work? You are starting to get into the danger zone but can probably get away with it because “nobody will ever know” so long as you aren’t dumb enough to upload the project files.
But once you start working for a “real” company or even reach “small business” levels of youtube? Now you need to actively hide what you are doing because that is the range where some bored person at Company X might look up in the database if you or your company have a license. And for the bigger companies? They might actively be working with Company X to iterate on features for a new release. And… That is also when you have enough money or exposure to be worth getting a C&D and told that you should settle and send them a large sack of cash.
Would you win the lawsuit? I… sincerely doubt it but we are also clearly in fantasy land in this thread and I am not going to bother to try to explain why “But I want it” won’t hold up. But… yeah.
If you bought photoshop back when it was not subscription and Adobe did not inform you that your license had an expiration date you can in fact do whatever the duck you want to it because you purchased it, you did not rent it, you did not subscribe. You purchased it and it is yours for life.
Matter of fact you have no idea if what you are suggesting would fly in court because I am pretty sure you don’t know about any previous case like this that has been even tried in court.
And if your company let the licenses expire a month ago, do you refuse to do your job?
If the software doesn’t run?
Yeah. You do. Because unless your company sends you a written email saying to go grab this off the pirate bay, then it is your ass on the line, not theirs.
And if they DO send that email? Document everything and run away as fast as you can.
That’s very nice in theory, but in real life you can either do your job by any means or find another one. And if you can’t find another one you just do what you have to do.
With all due respect:
You are a fucking moron if you put yourself at legal or financial risk for your employer. And that is what you are doing when you are using pirated software or other license misuse in a professional environment. Because you know what happens when Mathworks says “What the fuck? Why are we getting pings from the student version of Matlab at Innertrode?”? Your boss says “Oh shit. It must be Johnson. He went against our express instructions and this is a fireable offense”
And then you are fired and your boss doesn’t give a shit. Except you are also now the talk around the water cooler because you are a thief and you risked everyone else’s jobs in the process. Which tends to bode poorly when your former co-workers are on or near hiring committees at future jobs.
And if it was egregious enough that Mathworks is pissed? Guess what? Your company that you are willing to ride or die for is going to throw you to the wolves and do everything they can to get those fines on you because YOU were violating corporate policy.
If you can’t do your job without putting yourself at legal or financial risk then you won’t have a job for long. So rather than increase your risk until you get fired, start quiet quitting and interviewing elsewhere before the rest of the company gets sacked.
So I’m between guaranteed getting fired from not doing my work or maybe fired if someone finds out. Guess I’m the moron for choosing the former.
If your employer fires you for not pirating software on their behalf, you just stumbled into the easiest lawsuit of your life.
Holy Shitballs:
Also, hilarious that I can’t even get ahold of your support chat to question this unless I agree to these terms beforehand.
I can’t even uninstall Photoshop unless I agree to these terms?? Are you fucking kidding me??
Realising I also need to agree to the terms if I want to sign in and cancel my subscription
Can someone there give me an email for someone who can cancel my subscription without having to sign in and agree to these new terms first?
Realising I also need to agree to the terms if I want to sign in and cancel my subscription
I’m pretty sure this is not legal in EU
I think at that point I’d mail a certified letter and cancel whatever card it’s on.
That probably wouldn’t work but one can dream.
I mean it probably would. Their only recourse would be to sue you.
And if you have a decent credit card, and a record of your attempts to contact them and cancel your subscription, they’ll likely take your side if you back charge then block them from your card.
The question I’d like to ask them is WHY they want to get involved in Content Moderation. They make a toolset, nothing more, so why do they care what someone is using the tools for? What could they possibly get out of this that makes it worth the time or expense?
I imagine it’s because of the generative AI stuff. If they’re using their servers to generate, they’re going to be responsible for what it puts out, even if it’s just responding to user prompts.
It is always the stuff that they mumble and handwave that you have to watch out for. The Moderation part is just to get everyone all talking about that. The scary part is the “other stuff”. They probably want access to everyone’s data so they can train their AI on it.
Yep, and with access to the work files they not only can use final images for AI training but they have access to the complete background information like the different layers of an image.
Not just the layers, but a full history of every alteration they made from the first pixel to the last.
Those reasons being stealing people’s work for AI garbage.
Fuck Photoshop. Use Gimp and/or Krita.
Unfortunately, neither are good replacements for professional work.
when was the last time you tried krita AI?
If any large organizations want to make a large donation to Inkscape, GIMP, Krita and Blender that would be great.
I love FOSS alternatives, but let’s not pretend that GIMP is anywhere near being a viable alternative for professionals, unlike Blender who has got their shit together. I wish GIMP figured out actual decent UX.
I’ll upload a shitton of nudes to adobe cloud and report them so a poor bloke has to review those
That’s like punching your food delivery person in the face because you got the wrong order, they’re not the problem.
Wild. My old place we relied on this despite me urging us to use Figma/Sketch and Blender (amazing for 2D art). Naturally logistics factored into it as our clients relied on Adobe as well, but there were plenty of projects that didn’t need it.
We also had the dumbest guidelines to ensure no leaks. I would routinely get app requests refused despite the fact their source was right there on GitHub.
So now what are they gonna do? Because if they use Adobe, they can no longer ensure that a clients work won’t hit the net. May not seem like much for small indie projects but if we snagged the next GTA or Valorant, you bet that would attract some serious lookiloos.
Not sure if a client would find “it wasn’t us it was Adobe” all that comforting!
Figma
Did you even read what I wrote edgelord?
Yes and it was insightful.
Tell me you don’t want money from NSFW artists without telling me.
I mean… they ARE telling you?
Expect a LOT more companies to do stuff like this. Because “deep fake” porn is a plague and nobody (reputable) wants their software to be the go to for violating people.
Photoshop != deepfake porn. Although it might get used to touch up some images for realism.
Which isn’t where the money is in NSFW digital art.
Yes. Photoshop is not currently equal to deepfake porn. It is a few popular plugins away from being it though. Hence getting out ahead of things with content policies.
And… NSFW digital art is not as good money as you think it is. At least, not at the corporate/software level.
What do you mean by “at the corporate/software level”? What corporations are drawing furry porn?
I mean, have you seen Gadget?
But also… that is kind of the point. Adobe and basically every company that isn’t a porn company doesn’t care about the revenue from porn. And the companies that DO care about the revenue are constantly fighting piracy.
There are some patreon-like artists who make bank for getting their Source Film Maker on. But they are a handful of licenses, at best.
People complain now, but they’ll renew their subscription. It’s the same unhealthy relationship people have with Windows.
It is my understanding a lot of people maintain their unhealthy relationship with Windows as a prerequisite for keeping their unhealthy relationship with Adobe.
To be fair, the FOSS community in this area has categorically failed. GIMP’s mission statement is 1. be hateful to use and 2. be capable of editing photographs I guess. Inkscape can’t support CMYK colorspaces so just forget it if there’s an outside chance if it’s going to be printed, Krita can’t draw a circle, Pinta crashes every other thing…hell I wonder if Adobe pays the GIMP team to keep it unusable.
yep. I feel like FOSS projects are always made by code monkeys who have no design sensibilities and designers do not touch any of these. a lot of them are not only unusable but uninstallable by the majority of the intended user base. whenever i find something i want to use it’s like:
—cool software. can i double click on an icon and have it ready to use?
—umm, don’t be ridiculous, normie. you gotta self host it and use the command line to enter some arcane incantations obviously. alternatively you can use these other methods you’ve never heard of. if you need any help you can refer to their respective indecipherable documentation.
—ok I’ll keep what i have until i find something that’s made for regular human beings, thanks.A lot of open source graphics software is made by programmers who also need to edit images sometimes. Both the lack of UI polish and featureset choices make more sense when looked at from that angle.
However, a lot of the criticism that gets thrown at these programs is also a bit unfounded. I regularly see people dunking on GIMP for not being a pixel-perfect clone of Photoshop for free. There is more than one way to design an image editor, and inability of some to learn another is really a user issue. GIMP could be better, but it still can and should be GIMP.
GIMP has a well deserved reputation for responding to “this is not nice to use” with “Good!” There are lots of ways to design image editors, sure. Many of those ways are awful.
Blender used to suck, too. Then they made a decision to improve. Which GIMP is bound and determined not to do. So it needs to go in the box with HURD and someone needs to do better from scratch.
GIMP’s mission statement is 1. be hateful to use
It hurts to say but you’re right. I was like “can’t you remap the right mouse button to another tool? Everything in the context menu is in the Menu bar regardless” and they responded with “nope, design philosophy”
GIMP literally sucks on purpose. Anyone waiting around for GIMP to do what Blender did and suddenly become usable has missed the point.
But for what purpose?
making Adobe roll in money, i guess
Because we, the individuals, do not have the power to change it with an individual boycott and need to keep our livelihood intact. Go try to break you unhealthy relationship with petroleum.
This is actually an excellent comparison. I don’t own a car, and I advocate for the car free lifestyle. I also don’t recommend people using Adobe if possible.
A car is far from the only consumer of petroleum. Many electrical grids directly use hydrocarbons, construction uses petroleum, public transportation uses petroleum, local shipping uses petroleum, overseas shipping uses petroleum, manufacturing uses petroleum, plastic is made from petroleum, farms run on petroleum… Sure, most of those industries are trying to convert energy sources, but in no way can an individual avoid petroleum consumption and still live. Avoiding windows and Adobe is less insurmountable, but still a powerful stressor for people just trying to make a living.
This also matches my comparison.
Maybe someone who makes the GIMP uses photoshop. I actively don’t, and I recommend that others stop using it.
Maybe someone who delivers my food uses petroleum. I actively don’t, and I recommend that others stop using it.All these elements influence my decisions. If you want to continue promoting Adobe and Big Oil, that’s on you.
How’d you computer get to your home? Did it walk?
My desktop was given to me by my job. My laptop, I rode a bicycle to my friends house and paid him cash. What does that have to do with my promotion of being Adobe free?
You really are hands-off on this petroleum situation. You’ve got no part in it. It’s official. Everything in your life is a bike ride away and therefore didn’t use petroleum to get to your locality and didn’t take any to be manufactured. You won
People are subscribed to Adobe products?
Canceled my Adobe account in 2018 and they just keep on making my decision a better and better one. Thanks, Adobe!
What do you use now?
There’s GIMP and Krita as Photoshop alternatives
Dark Table as a Lightroom alternative
DaVinci Resolve as a video editor
Personally giving up Lightroom is the hardest IMO, the others were easy choices.
Edit: Will add links when I get to my next break at work, no time right now.
I bought the Affinity Suite which has been great for me. Sadly they don’t have a Linux version, which is what I’m moving to. Krita covers some other of Photoshop’s features as well. And people who say Gimp is a Photoshop alternative are crazy. Gimp uses destructive editing which is clown level in image editing and makes it completely useless imo. But supposedly non-destructive editing is coming.
I really wish I didn’t hate gimp but I very much do.
It is destructive in what sense? I’ve been using gimp to do various edits non professionally for many years and I am feeling comfortable with many advanced things, but now I am curious about maybe trying Krita or something.
I thought using layers and so on in gimp was also considered non destructive… Maybe I am missing out on something.
I have also used photoshop in like 20 years ago, can’t remember much.
Destructive in that many edits are lossy. Change the transform of an object, then go do a bunch of other edits, and then go back and edit that same transform again. What you’ll be editing now is the edited image, not the original one (as in Photoshop), so there’s massive data loss and it looks absolute crap. If you want to edit with the original image as origin you have to undo all edits back to before you edited the transform the first time.
Non-destructive editing should be coming in the future, and they might have implemented some non-destructive things since I last used it.
