Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/07/sorry-not-sorry-4.html
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I would say that that’s a good reason to never do business with them again, but unfortunately, for a lot of their users, I don’t think that’s an option.
At the hobbyist level I do photography, there are other options, and I moved shortly after Adobe went SAAS, but my impression is that professionals don’t really have a choice.
Edit: I didn’t realize when I posted this that they had to do this to comply with the executive order. I don’t really see what else they could do, but it is an argument against SAAS.
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And once again, we see why the clown can’t be trusted.
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Moreover, I think this is another object lesson in why you can’t and shouldn’t expect major corporations to behave in a moral or ethical manner - you can only expect them to obey the law - and then, only when forced.
Sure, we can discuss whether or not Adobe should just continue to ignore the executive order, but we all collectively know they won’t, right? The upside of this is the ongoing shifts in changes to obey laws like the GDPR, which has been a broadly positive force for users.
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Is Cory suggesting that corporations should not be subject to the laws of the state?
I get that in both this example and the Austrian Facebook example the state has made bad decisions. But the idea that corporations should choose which of the laws they are to be subject to and simply ignore the rest seems unwise (to say the least).
Who knew that Cory harboured some Libertarian instincts :-)!
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Hopefully this will inspire a big investment into improving open source competitors to Adobe software. Adobe may be the best game in town, but it’s not the only game. If Adobe won’t sell to Venezuelans, Venezuelans may decide to build their own tools.
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Isn’t actively canceling a license a transaction in and of itself?
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No matter how the Trump disaster finally plays out, no one on the planet will trust the US again for generations. And they shouldn’t - we continually demonstrate that we’re a nation of honorless dogs. Even those of us that try to be decent get pushed out for profits at the drop of a hat.
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Well, whatever you think of Adobe and their cloud services model, the blame for this situation rests squarely with the current US administration, not Adobe. The US is trying to strangle Venezuela any way it possibly can and any company that does business with VZ is looking at large fines from the Treasury Dept. At the moment, VZ cannot move any of their oil because they can’t lease any ships due to US sanctions. This is the same nonsense that Cuba has been dealing with for decades, and you won’t find any Adobe products for sale there, either. App store and Google Play are firewalled. No US software, banking, e-commerce of any kind is possible from either country. We have to make sure that the godless commies suffer as much as possible. Anyway, software is the least of VZ’s problems. Blockade of banking, medicine sales, and oil markets is what is really hurting them. Any Venezuelans who want Adobe’s software can just pirate it.
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Yeah, nah.
Adobe chose to go the SAAS route, the natural consequence of which is that purchasers of their software cease to be owners, thus losing all the rights and privileges that owners have. The “current US administration” had nothing to do with that decision.
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I don’t get the problem here. No intelligent human would ever give these monsters their money, and no ethical human would ever care. Adobe, like all these other hustlers, just want to steal as much as they can from the societies that allow them to operate. Some, like AT&T should all be in prisons, in a sane society. Others, like Adobe are just sad and stupid, kind of bouncing back and forth between ethics and greed.
But there is absolutely no reason any being on this planet should bend over and bow to greed. Ever. If the law says do that, it’s bad law. Is Adobe better than AT&T? Arguably. But you owe neither anything.
No, but this does demonstrate that if Adobe just decided to say “fuck you”, they can do so handily and you have no recourse.
Back when software sold as physical copies, you could reinstall. You always still had the discs. But with the cloud set-up… saying “slap on an eyepatch, me hearties” is all well and good, but may not actually be possible if there’s no individual copy of a program to pirate, just access to a cloud server where the application rests.
That they had legal reason to do it to Venezuela is one thing. That they can do it on a whim to anyone is quite another.
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The Cloud depresses me…
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Did this just happen?
The order went into effect all the way back on August 5. If Adobe’s been providing access in Venezuela ever since, it was already in violation.
And the company’s giving itself until the end of the month for users to DL their content? That sure sounds like providing services. Yet those services are OK, but refund service aren’t?
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So I read the executive order and it only seems to be about the Venezuelan government, not Venezuelan citizens or businesses.
And the executive order was issued August 5th, but the Adobe notification seems to have been published today, meaning they likely took money from people over the last two months despite now saying they shouldn’t have and won’t be giving it back. They could have been issuing refunds prior to this, but chose not to.
On top of Adobe already being greedy and rent-seeking, this just smacks of fraud.
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I mean, it sure would suck for Adobe if Venezuela finds this to be fraudulent and illegal and, say, issues arrest warrants for everyone involved at the company (and their local business nexus).
Wait, what’s that? Only the laws of the hegemonic empire matter? Gotcha.
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whynotboth.jpg
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I would like to propose a new law. Every time somebody says The Cloud it must be accompanied with jazz hands. I will accept 
in text formats. So it becomes The Cloud
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The Cloud 
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