this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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Adobe faces big fines from FTC over difficult subscription cancellation::Adobe could face hefty fines related to its overly difficult and costly subscription cancellation practices due to an ongoing Federal Trade Commission Probe.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago (1 children)

remember boys and girls it's always morally responsible to pirate Adobe programs.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Or better yet, just don't use Adobe products. Staying in their ecosystem is how they end up getting money anyways if that's what you know how to use.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago

We used to use frame.io which is now owned by Adobe. We had been with frame.io since the beginning so we were on one of their older business plans which they no longer offer to new customers, but throughout the years as we have been expanding we have purchased extra seats and storage when needed.

Earlier this year they came to us and said they are getting rid of the business plan completely for all existing customers. So either we upgrade to their enterprise plan which will cost us about $12k per year more, a 300% price increase. And of the enterprise features we would gain from upgrading, we won't even use in our current workflow. Or downgrade to their teams account which maxes out to 15 users only. We needed 22 for our current team so we physically couldn't downgrade to that plan.

Basically for the size of our business. We were too big for the teams account and not big enough to justify an enterprise account. There was no longer a plan to cater for business of our size.

And we had about a month to make a decision. As our yearly plan was coming up for renewal.

And the way the Adobe sales team approached this was terrible too. They kept emailing everyone on my team wanting to meet up and help 'optimise' frame.io into our workflow better. The way it was worded everyone thought it was a scam email at 1st. I eventually replied to see what they wanted as I'm the account manager and normally deal with frame.io for account renewals and what not, and straight away their call turned into a sales call telling us we needed to upgrade to enterprise.

We went looking for an alternative as we knew we couldn't use frame.io any more. And luckily came across krock.io which is a very similar video review platform which actually has some really nice features frame.io didn't have. And priced at a reasonable price with unlimited users. So if anyone wants to get away from adobe/frame.io. I encourage you to try out krock.io and see if that fits your video review needs. They have a free trial to try it out. Hopefully more people can get away from adobe/frame.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Can you get a semi current build of photoshop? Asking for a friend who is struggling with gimp and hasn’t sailed in ages…

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

There is an "Adobe Master Collection 202X" crack (where X is the current year) that includes all the current Adobe programs and a custom installer made in the style of the old Creative Suite installer. I believe it's by m0nkrus, or at least that's who uploads it to the private tracker I use. They release several new ones throughout the year so you can keep the programs up to date, and obviously the installer lets you choose which of the programs you want to install.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

ty! the hunt begins

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Gave up on Photoshop and Gimp. Take this, you'll need it:

https://www.photopea.com/

Haven't used anything else in years.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I use Photopea all the time, I love it because the UI is almost an exact copy paste of PS, my only complaint is I wish they had a lifetime license to get rid of that side bar ad, the only options are all subscriptions/monthly. And I know the donate page literally says they don’t do subscriptions, but what else do you call a one time payment for 30 days of ad free?

Ad block works to block the ad, but I haven’t found a way to get that screen space back.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Back in the day there used to be a patch that could block the app from communicating with adobe’s servers to verify the subscription.

That might still exist in some form, but with all of phthoshops new AI features I’d imagine that you’d need constant communication with those servers for the app to actually function.

I’m sorry I didn’t provide any actual help.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

That takes me back...I used to work at a computer training company where we would build PC images with the trial versions of everything on them, and every 30 days we'd reimage the machines. The president of the company was shady af. I got out of there just as Adobe was making the transition to subs. I do not miss explaining to the class attendees why everything was watermarked as trail versions.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Their terrible business practices is why I refuse to use Adobe. I have heard too many horror stories.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I haven't found it too tough to remove all Adobe products from my workflow. And not even just by going full Richard Stallman, underpants-on-head raving Free Open Source and subsisting on pinecones and berries in the forest, either.

There's basically nothing Adobe software does that some other company doesn't also offer (or a FOSS alternative, if you don't need to do anything heavy duty). CorelDraw and PhotoPaint are comparable options to replace Illustrator and Photoshop for 2D vector and bitmap manipulation, respectively. DaVinci Resolve or even OpenShot can replace Premiere for the majority of users. And sure as shit nobody needs Acrobat or Reader or whatever the fuck they're calling their PDF package these days; everything supports PDF's natively. The days of Adobe having a stranglehold on that are over.

The only viable excuse for being locked in to Adobe products anymore is if that's what your workplace or school uses and you're stuck with it. Otherwise, they can just fuck off as far as I'm concerned.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Clip Studio Paint and Krita are fantastic options for 2d art, and can be better than Photoshop for drawing and painting.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (11 children)

This is a fucking trap. Monthly subcription is a bait to force you into monthly but commit annuall subcription. And you got to pay the fine if you cancel.

So, it is basicly lock in unaware user.

I wonder what if a user use adobe for 13 months and cancel ? Do they have to pay the fine too ? Got to cancel the percision moment to avoid fine ?

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I long for the day when people who think about doing this kind of shit worry about jail time, not just slap on the wrist fines.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

At a minimum they should have their business license suspended for a period of time.

Let's see how many customers a business gets when there's the risk that said business gets shut down for a month.

With the requirement that all staff below management still get paid regular salary.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

They'll keep doing it until we start taking the problem of monopolies seriously

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I cancelled my credit card which incidentally was used for a photoshop and lightroom subscription I had used for an intro period. They sent me threatening emails for about 4 months before they gave up.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

It was a real card. I cancelled it because of fraud. The service worked until the end of the period.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (6 children)

How do you get one of those?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

A lot of the newer online-only banks offer virtual cards. Revolut, N26 etc.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Master card has a similar thing.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I have used privacy.com for this in the past. Don't know if there are better options.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not surprised. I have been using Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher for 5 years and don’t miss Adobe at all. People should check them out if they haven’t found their own good alternatives already.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The alternative is cracked cs6

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I was an Adobe customer years ago, but due to things like the above, they inadvertently pushed me to Open Source alternatives and I have not looked back. So I guess, Thank You Adobe is in order. Hope the fine is actually big as they really played dirty.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Same here.

I remember suggesting alternatives like GIMP to photography pros years ago simply because I could see where Adobe was heading when they changed to the subscription model.

Don’t get me wrong, they were innovative a long time ago however now they are structured purely on greed and add nothing deserved my of their services nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Gimp, Inkscape, and Scribus were terrible to use after using Adobe for years. Get Affinity suite instead and save yourself the rage and frustration. It's one-time payment license (not a subscription) and they have deals. I got the license for the three of them for $90. They are way closer to Adobe products and definitely worth the one-time cost.

I love the concept of open source, but you can only make so many compromises in quality and usability, especially if you're likelihood depends on it. Gimp, etc just aren't there.

(On the other end of the spectrum, Blender is so amazing I can still hardly believe it.)

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This why we have regulations and why we NEED it

This is exactly why you have corporate politicians screaming about "government oversight" and they're adamant about taking away all the corporate teeth from the FEC, FTC, CFPB

So their donors can get away with shit like this

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I always try to buy subscriptions with PayPal for this reason. Because buried in their UI you can go turn off the automatic payments to that payee. They usually cancel the subscription themselves if you stop paying them.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Privacy.com is what I use. It lets you generate virtual cards to use so you don't need to hand over your actual debit card. You can also set a maximum per day/month/transaction.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

Fractions of pennies compared to what they're taking in. This isn't a fine, it's racketeering.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Suck it Adobe. Never buying a product from them again.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Steal their products or use open source alternatives, fuck adobe

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

I’m sure this all hinges on their weird “annual commitment” thing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Paying a fine to cancel a monthly is bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Paid for by people who can't cancel.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

im sure adobe is shakin in their boots over having to pay a small fine for locking in clients.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Sadly the fine won’t be greater than the benefits this practice brings to Adobe so they’ll keep doing it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

What if people used burner cards in order to avoid the difficulties canceling?

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