Tech Talk: Will outright purchase of photoshop kill its piracy?
Last week Adobe has announced that from now on all its software including Photoshop will be available only through a web-based subscription service called Creative Cloud (CC) and that the ''perpetual licenses' or outright purchases of the software will cease with CS6.
That means the newest version of Photoshop named Adobe Photoshop CC will be available only to Creative Cloud members. (Other Adobe software too have typical name changes: InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC and Premiere Pro CC .) The new subscription system will be available from June 17.
Does the new changes mean you should always be connected to the internet if you want to use Photoshop? Let also check what are the pricing options available for users of the software in India.
Adobe Photoshop
For years Adobe has been offering cutting edge technology for its users through individual apps and the Creative Suit. It was costly. And it was one of the most pirated software in the world. Once the new packaged software was made available by Adobe, hackers will make pirated versions available which can be downloaded and used for free.
The company's policy till now has been to unveil a new product with all the latest magic wands in every 18 months or so.
(However, Adobe will offer support for those who have purchased the latest version of the Creative Suit (CS6) ( a collection of all the Adobe products) till the next OS updates by Microsoft and Apple. The next version of Camera Raw will also be made available to them. But they may not get one of the most coveted features: camera shake correction. For that they will have to buy PS CC.)
What the cloud migration means for the customer is that the latest software will be made available to him continually. He will also get storage space in the cloud.
Here are a couple of new features added to Photoshop CC:
The most-awaited and deblurring and sharpening tools make their début in this version. The Camera Shake Reduction tool is one of the most prominent features. The Intelligent upsampling feature will allow users to blow up their images without getting pixelated.
Behance, the world's leading online creative community, is integrated with Creative Cloud, which means users can get feedbacks on their work from the community.
So, what about the pricing?
Anyone can try the apps for 30 days. During that period the user will get 2GB of cloud storage and limited access to other features.
The most affordable plan in which the user can access any one of the apps will start at Rs 1000 per month. This will be the best plan for Photoshop users in India.
In this plan the user will get 20 GB of storage space and limited access.
The complete access of the suit is available for Rs 2700 per month. The catch here is that the user will have to commit for 12 months. This will be the best plan for Individuals who use more two apps.
There are also other plans for existing Adobe customers. Any customer who has bought CS3 or later versions are eligible for special discounts. They can get the complete package for Rs1600 and a single app for Rs 499 a month. (This reduced price will be applicable only for the first 12 months.)
The 'Student & Teacher' plan also allows users to get access to the complete suit for Rs 1600 per month.
(The pricing for the 'Teams and Business' was not available at the time of writing this article.)
So, now on to the big questions:
Do we need an active internet connection to use the Photoshop or other Adobe products from now on? No. Once in a while the subscribers will have to connect to the internet. As long as we pay the subscription fee we will able to use the programme and enjoy the updates. We can store our images locally too. It will be like a live app that will continue to add new features.
Will this move by Adobe end piracy of its products altogether?
Adobe doesn't think so. The pirated version users may not get newer features released by the company immediately.
By the by, India-born Shantanu Narayen is the President and CEO of Adobe Systems.
Quote of the Week:
While service options that connect to our servers are inherently less prone to piracy, once a user downloads software to their computer the piracy threat is the same as for our perpetual products.