Where can you download a fully working copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 & serial number free?
I’m not talking about a trial version I mean a genuine fully operational version of Adobe Photoshop CS2. How about from Adobe’s own website. If it sounds far too good to be true it may well be but the fact of the matter is Adobe are currently hosting a page where Creative Suite 2 (CS2) programs including Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Elements 4.0/5.0 can be downloaded and beside the download Adobe are list the required Serial numbers to make those programs work.
There followed some discussion on the internet as to whether it is actually legal for any Tom, Dick or Harry to come along and help themselves to these programs as it seems the origin of this list lies in the fact that Adobe are ceasing support for the CS2 range of software and that means switching off the activation server for those products. If the web rumours are to be believed this caused complaints from CS2 product owners who would not be able to reactivate products they had paid for should the need arise. That in turn led to adobe listing all CS2 products for download and giving a serial number for each product.
In January 7th this year (2013) Adobe issued the following statement…
“Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch. These products were released over 7 years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems. But to ensure that any customers activating those old versions can continue to use their software, we issued a serial number directly to those customers. While this might be interpreted as Adobe giving away software for free, we did it to help our customers.”
While according to “Adobe scientist Dov Isaacs” as reported by Forbes.com the word is…
“You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!” You have to have purchased a copy of CS2 before you can legally within the strict letter of the law help yourself as it were.
So there it is crystal clear except if you follow the link to the “free” CS2 Downloads page you now find Adobe asking you to log in or create a free account which once logged in takes you a page which announces
“Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.
Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.”
Click “I Agree” and you end up right back where we started Adobe’s own website providing download links with serial numbers for CS2 products where if you are dishonest enough you could steal some genuine CS2 Products.
So Adobe have problem, on the one hand they have a product that’s their IP and if its good enough to use its good enough to charge for, but they wish to retire it while customers who legally purchased it may still need to re-activate it.
I do wonder if, in the long run, this may even gain them customers. By risking have the old software stolen by people who didn’t pay for it while keeping legitimate customers happy shows loyalty to existing users and maybe just maybe some will “steal” a “free” copy and decide its good for them and while they don’t need or can’t afford to buy Adobe Photoshop CS6 they may consider Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 which can be legally purchased directly from Adobe for under £80 .