Adobe faces big fines from FTC over difficult subscription cancellation

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

Nawor3565

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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.

https://www.photopea.com/

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ty! the hunt begins

shalafi

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

Haven't used anything else in years.

GhostlyPixel

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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.

_dev_null

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I haven’t found a way to get that screen space back.

uBlock Origin's element picker is probably what you're looking for. Install the addon, click the uo icon, towards the bottom click the eye dropper icon, select the element on the page you want gone, then click create the button. So long as the underlying name of the element doesn't change, you should be all set!

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I'll give it a spin. Ty!

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I just have to say that this is now my photoshop replacement without a doubt. Thank you so much for this! Completely changes everything for me 👍 👍

Wermhatswormhat

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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.

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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.

shalafi

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Acrobat X started failing for me using that crack. Launches and immediately shuts down.

cheese_greater

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I actually have no idea but it has to be available somewhere

TenderfootGungi

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

dual_sport_dork

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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.

Euphoma

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

shuzuko

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Clip Studio Paint has mostly taken over the small time/independent illustration industry, unless you've got an ipad and use procreate. Krita seems ok, too, though after testing both briefly I preferred CSP.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot

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As far as I'm concerned, Adobe's name is mud.

hahattpro

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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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I hate Adobe as much as anyone but they make it pretty damn clear that it's a 12 month commitment and you obviously get a cheaper price for that.

Of course they want to discourage people from committing to 12 months and then cancelling after 6 months. So you have to pay a fine of half of what you committed too.

A normal rental company would be equally pissed if you promised that you were gonna pay them for 12 months and instead cancelled after 6.

If people can't be bothered to read what they are buying or any of the multiple warnings, then imo that's their fault. It's not like they bury this in their TOS or something, it's prominent on and before the checkout page.

brianorca

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It's software. There's literally no reason to treat it like a car lease. There is no overhead or cost on their part which justifies an early termination fee.

locuester

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But this is the business model they chose, software usage leasing. I agree it sucks, but we can’t expect software leasing to be ruled illegal. Lol

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No, but they offer a better price if you agree to a contract where you pay for a year.

If you don't want a better price then don't go with an annual plan, easy.

The cheaper annual plan wouldn't exist if they didn't have any way to stop people from abusing it.

Pandemanium

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I started a free trial of Adobe stock. I forgot to cancel after the first month. They charged me $30 for the next month, ok, that's on me. But when I tried to cancel during that second month, they said I had signed a contract to pay them for a year (I didn't, all I did was sign up for the free trial) and I now owe them $165 to cancel the subscription. So in essence they were going to charge me $195 for one month of Adobe stock. That's insane.

brianorca

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Every annual discount plan I know of (at other companies) is paid once per year. If you pay monthly, then you get the higher monthly price. If you stop paying, then your access stops. No extra fee to pay.

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Adobe offers a prepaid annual plan, an annual plan paid monthly, and a normal monthly plan.

They make that very clear from their order page.

Pyr_Pressure

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If you get a $5/ month discount on a $30lmonth plan and decide to cancel after 6 months, you shouldn't be fined $150 for the remaining 6 months.

You should be fined $30 for the $5/month you saved on the 6 months you already used. They would try and charge you for the rest of the term instead while removing your ability to use the product for that time, making it pointless to cancel.

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By my calculation it's actually cheaper to go with the annual plan (creative cloud all apps) and cancel after 6 months and pay the fine than it is to just go with the monthly plan. (The discount is 30 USD per month)

So I consider that to be reasonable.

linearchaos

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They're in thouble because they made it too complicated.

If they said no refunds, or made every option 50% refund, the FTC wouldn't be up in their grill.

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It seems that they don't mind the fee it's the cancellation process that they take issue with. It has been a while since I last used Adobe products but I can't recall that it was so bad. But maybe it's still not legal.

They are probably entirely within their rights to offer no refunds but I suspect that would anger people even more.

50% refunds on the normal monthly wouldn't make sense, because the plan doesn't cancel until the end of the month anyways. So they would offer 50% refunds for essentially nothing.

lolcatnip

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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.

Pyr_Pressure

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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.

makyo

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

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018118055

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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.

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018118055

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

IbnLemmy

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How do you get one of those?

kambusha

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

RoseRose56

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Master card has a similar thing.

shalafi

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Forgot which one, but my traditional CC offers this.

jawa21

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

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LazaroFilm

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Pre-paid card?

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Luci

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I had a prepaid card that let me transfer the balance of one to the other. I don't recall the bank but it was a VISA prepaid.

DigitalGemini

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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.

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The alternative is cracked cs6

chalupapocalypse

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Still on a cs5 micro someone made lol

That and photopea, which owns

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5 is fine too

Patches

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From limewire

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I got mine from pbay and will never let it go

abbotsbury

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Any reason 6 in particular?