04.23.09
Adobe Offers Proprietary Drugs to Students, Then Cracks Down on Schools
Real crackdown
Adobe gets the kids high in higher education
Summary: “Poor Adobe threatens with legal action and audit against educational institutions,” says an informant
ADOBE is notorious for its attempt to get young people ‘addicted’ to its software. The company hopes that grown-up men and women will be so locked in that they will be forced to pay dearly for habits, data, and skills that they acquired in their younger days.
The Inquirer once wrote about Adobe’s abuse of academic institutions where it added a little humour to the mix
Adobe targets school kids to get them hooked on software
[...]
Adobe is where the ‘apps’ are manufactured. These apps that have the power to make images appear before our children’s eyes. “There were all these, like, stars, and they were rotating. It really captured my attention,” said Nigel, 14, hardly more than a child, but with the vacant expression of a man who has spent hours looking at a screen. Nigel has now discovered he needs glasses.
Now it also turns out that not even academic institutions (which get children addicted to Adobe’s software) are off the hook. Check out the following leaked E-mail. What a nice company:
Adobe proposes to conduct an audit to assess the exact usage of Adobe software in the colleges. At this juncture, we will be very pleased if you could kindly verify the usage of Adobe software at your college and refrain from using unlicensed versions of the Adobe software at any of your labs. Adobe is very committed to support academia and has a very attractive licensing programme for colleges.
The full message is appended for completeness. █
Appendix: Adobe comes knocking
Please ignore this mail if-s
1. You are not an [Anonymised]
2. If you already have availed the offer of 30 user Adobe/have licensed 30 user adobe Multimedia bundleDear Chairman/Principal/Correspondent/Secretary/Head-CSE/IT/System Manager/Faculty of [Anonymised]
Adobe proposes to audit to all colleges
The letter is sent by Adobe, [Anonymised] directly addressed to The Principal/Chairman. In case you have not received the letter as yet, you will be receiving in the next 2 days.
Find below the copy of the letter for your immediate action!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
To The Principal/Chairman
Dear Sir
Sub: Adobe Software usage at your campus
This is with reference to the Adobe special Education offer extended to [Anonymised] its affiliated colleges during September 2006 to February 2007.
We are glad to note the good response from several colleges that availed of the special offer and also for having purchased Adobe and Macromedia software earlier. We are sure it would have helped the colleges set up a good multimedia lab and also offer training programmes that is industry relevant.
Adobe proposes to conduct an audit to assess the exact usage of Adobe software in the colleges. At this juncture, we will be very pleased if you could kindly verify the usage of Adobe software at your college and refrain from using unlicensed versions of the Adobe software at any of your labs. Adobe is very committed to support academia and has a very attractive licensing programme for colleges.
Adobe’s License Compliance review may require the following:
1. Reviewing the software acquisition, distribution and monitoring processes presently in place;
2. Reconciling installation and deployment records with ownership records
Please be prepared to provide us with your deployment records within 4 weeks of the receipt of this letter. Also Adobe or designated independent third party will contact you soon to discuss the Compliance Review and to answer any questions you may have in detail. Please distribute a copy of this notification letter to the appropriate person(s). Also, please prepare to make all supporting records available upon request.
We look forward to your support and co-operation in this regard.
[Anonymised]
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Please call on us for any clarifications in this regard. [Anonymised] Or send us a mail @ [Anonymised], if you would like to have the Adobe offer/proposal that is exclusive for [Anonymised].
Sincere regards
[Anonymised]
whatever said,
April 24, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I’m confused. Adobe makes it really, really easy for institutions to get licensed (and in turn, supported — and if you’ve ever run a 30-60 seat graphics lab, you understand why having support for Premeire or Photoshop or In Design or whatever can be critical. Especially if these are interacting with stuff like Maya or 3DStudio or whatever) software on the cheap or for free. They contracr out an insane number of representatives to deal with institutions and the per-seat cost is almost always as low, or lower than, any so called free software alternative (ever try to maintain GIMP in a lab — you just don’t do it. Forget about what is the industry standard, the accepted standard for printers — GIMP and Inkscape just don’t work in a media lab — the support is nightmarish) — so why is an audit request and a request to not use unlicensed software bad?
Don’t get me wrong, Adobe sucks and individual buyers get SCREWED on the cost of upgrades and whatnot, but for design shops, schools or other institutuions that can get an account rep and VLM or VELM (volume educational license) deal, Adobe will kiss your ass. They won’t fellate you the way AVID will, but they will do everything they can to get you “legit” for very little money.
If that ends up being bad for students in the future is a different argument. As a designer, I’d say no. Only because if I had to stop using In Design and go back to Quark, I’d claw my eyes out with my tablet stylus.