DIYPhotography.net has the story and the link. Seems Adobe'd rather have you register it than pirate. Kudos Adobe!

  • http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Natural-Water-Based-Lubricant-Gallon/dp/B005MR3IVO/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1329969578&sr=1-1 K. Kebabyoghurt

    Been using GIMP for a long time, but might give this a try… when the page starts working again!?

  • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

     Guessing they got swamped :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/hyouko.kun Chris Drouin

    False alarm.  This was only meant to go to people who purchased the original and couldn’t activate it, and they’ve since taken it down.

    • http://profiles.google.com/frankozaki Frank Ozaki

      yep. it was a workaround for CS2 owners because adobe shut down the CS2 licensing servers, and if CS2 owners reinstalled their software, they couldn’t activate their software. it still requires an Adobe ID and a valid serial number.

      • xzzy

        Quick, someone edit the story into another long rant about why DRM is bullshit.

        • Joshua Ochs

          I’d be happy if any of the dozens of outlets that covered this would post a retraction.

          • http://twitter.com/EylerWerve Jonathan Eyler-Werve

            CNET:

            UPDATE, 2:40 p.m. PT: There has been clarification since this story broke. Adobe has not released the CS2 software for free. Instead, it has cancelled its CS2 license management servers, so for those with existing licenses it is now offering downloads that do not require contact with the licensing servers. This service is only going to be available for those with existing Adobe CS2 licenses, which will be verified when creating the Adobe account to download the software.

        • Cowicide

          someone edit the story into another long rant about why DRM is bullshit.

          Or just about a missed opportunity to expose more cash-strapped, aspiring people to their app. The pirating of Photoshop by teenagers over the years is what made it so popular and drove in later massive purchases of PS when the former pirates grew into older creative professionals.

          If it wasn’t for piracy, Adobe wouldn’t be the near monopoly it is today.  This would have been good for everyone, but Adobe doesn’t “get it”.

          • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

            Seriously, I’ve never understood why it’s so expensive; you would think they’d get expoentionaly more customers by charging $25 rather than the 600 they normally do.

          • Ryan_T_H

             Sure they would, but not the 24x more customers they would need to break even.

            All the Adobe software is aimed at professionals. And as far as professional expenses go, it’s pretty minimal. No one who actually needs it to do their jobs blinks twice at the price.

          • phuzz

            I think they do get it, they certainly don’t seem to make as much of a fuss about piracy as most software companies (and lets not even mention the entertainment industry).
            I think at least some people in Adobe see piracy as the ‘demo’ version of their software, locking people into using it, so when they are in a position to pay for, they do (or rather the company that they work for will pay).

          • Cowicide

            they certainly don’t seem to make as much of a fuss about piracy as most software companies (and lets not even mention the entertainment industry).

            Oh, don’t worry… they’re working on it through the SIIA and buying out our politicians (corporatist liaisons) with money as well.

            I think at least some people in Adobe see piracy as the ‘demo’ version of their software

            Maybe, but the ones steering the ship are certainly pushing towards more and more draconian DRM & anti-piracy laws (see SIIA above).

  • Chris Bair

    http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/87488/adobe-adobe-creative-suite-cs2-standard-pc-or-mac-digital-download

    scroll down a bit and someone has posted the download links and the generic serial number that Adobe gives out to everyone

  • http://twitter.com/matatias Matias Peruyera

    Too good to be real.

  • laen

    They will absolutely never do that. For many reasons.

    • http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

      The first taste is free?  I think it would be a great idea, maybe with some caveats (no commercial work?) complementing their insane edu pricing. (I got the lesser of the full cs6 suites for $350 because my wife works for a school)

  • http://txhoudini.com txhoudini

    The fact that this was such huge news should (but probably won’t) open Adobe’s eyes to the fact that if they lowered their prices so the average person could afford it they would probably sell many more copies and quite possibly make more money.

    • vonbobo

      they do, it’s called Elements. Adobe has both ends of the spectrum covered already.

      Can a midpriced CS2 make up profits from lost CS2 and Elements revenue, and then turn a profit on top of that to make it all work?

      • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

        Elements suuuuuuuccck. I’ve had several versions given to me that came free with people’s computers and for some reason they’re just so unstable.

    • mccrum

      Lightroom still remains their best deal, with inexpensive pricing and amazing upgrade paths.  You can buy V1 for next to nothing and upgrade to V4 for about $80.  The only reason I can figure is that Aperture is is about $80 and Adobe is being forced to keep up.

      • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

        Good to know.

  • autark

    Dude, CS6 is out now… why *not* just release CS2 for free? I thought this was like “oh, hey, we had these bits collecting dust here… play with them like you would an Atari Emulator”

    • http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

      I actually hunted down a hard copy of Photoshop 7 earlier this year since it was cheap and  (in my experience) the least bloated and most stable version of Photoshop. If Adobe released ANY version of Photoshop free, they’d lose millions of low-end customers.

      Additionally, there is the matter of Pantone and other colour management licensing to deal with. Pantone want their fees, no doubt.

  • http://twitter.com/thanat_o_maton Phoenix K

    Mirror with serials: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1woD1x4CzokSxRsTaNU4K0nH7n0GAUSkXmwyfWAjLXu0/preview?sle=true

  • http://www.markcrummett.com crummett

    I just downloaded Photoshop and the CS2 disk images from the link in this post and it worked fine. It won’t install on my 10.7.5 iMac, but it downloaded fine! I’ll try it on the G5 tomorrow, though.

  • http://twitter.com/slowtiger slowtiger

    CS2 only works on PPC Macs and up to 10.6, AFAIR.

  • garyg2

    Looks like they’re insisting it’s only for existing license holders now. So, I’m now genuinely amazed a company of their size can’t offer the serials/downloads just to existing customers somehow without having to slap them on a publicly accessible page. I’ve dealt with tiny companies with license management systems that would allow that, easily. Only themselves to blame etc etc.

  • Jorpho

     I’m confused.  The download links are still there, so does this work or not?