Software Piracy
photo credit: Kevin Steele
I just read an interesting article from Epic Edits Weblog about the piracy rates for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and other programs. They conducted an admittedly unscientific poll of their readers to see how many were users of Photoshop and Lightroom and how many of those users had pirated the software.
87% of their users polled claimed to be Photoshop users and 58% of those users claimed to use a pirated (stolen) copy. 58% of poll respondents claimed to be Lightroom users and 55% of those used pirated copies.
Feel free to read the article and the very long stream of comments that follow to form your own opinion, but here’s mine:
That’s ridiculous! It’s pretty well known that Adobe’s products (Photoshop, in particular) is one of the more pirated software programs out there, and there’s really no excuse for it.
Adobe charges too much for their software, so it’s only right for me to pirate it.
This is the “lashing out at The Man” argument. Adobe makes some pretty amazing software. Sure, it’s not without flaws or bugs, but I’m pretty certain you can’t do any better. Adobe’s software is expensive. It’s designed for professionals (read: People With Jobs) and priced accordingly. If you’re good with Photoshop, buy it, create something with it, and profit from it. If you’re just in it for the fun of it, there are some cheaper and free alternatives, such as GIMP.
I’m just learning the program, so I shouldn’t have to pay for it. I’ll buy it after I learn it.
So…now you know Photoshop. Did you buy it? I doubt it. If you’re learning it, you can take a class (most of them provide machines with Photoshop for your use in class), watch tutorials, or learn with the 30-day trial. If you’re serious about learning Photoshop, what better motivation than to sink a few hundred bucks into the program to keep your “learning” focused and on track?
Students and teenagers can’t afford it, so they should get it for free.
Students and teenagers are usually…you guessed it…students. Adobe offers pretty gracious educational pricing for their software.
Pirating is good for Adobe. It makes their programs more popular, so in the end more people buy them.
It’s pretty clear that Photoshop is the industry-standard for photo-editing and design. I guess we could argue back and forth all day about whether the historical piracy of Photoshop led to its current market position. I certainly don’t think that’s true. True power-users of Photoshop (of whom almost 100% use legal copies) are sharing files with other users of legal copies. The rampant use of pirated versions of the software offer them or Adobe no advantage.
I wasn’t going to buy it anyway, so if I pirate it, the net loss to Adobe is $0.
I wasn’t going to buy your crappy artwork anyway, so if I copy it and display it as my own, your net loss is $0.
I encourage you to experiment with the software, check it out on a friend’s computer, download the 30-day free trials that are available and use them…for 30 days. Take a class and use their computers to practice. Then, bite the bullet and purchase the software. If you’re a student or teacher, you can usually get it at a highly-discounted educational rate.
Lightroom is relatively inexpensive (max of $299). If you need an alternative to Photoshop, why not try the open-source (free) GIMP. It’s not exactly the same thing, but it can get you through until you can afford Photoshop.
For myself, as an educator and Adobe professional, it’s vital that all of my software is legally licensed and purchased. Sure, I can get educational pricing from time-to-time, but I bought my CS3 programs before I was eligible for educational pricing, so I paid full-price for Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Illustrator, InDesign, Contribute, etc. Yeah, it was expensive, but it was the right thing to do.
Bottom Line: Would you walk into your local Apple Store, grab a copy of Photoshop off the shelf, tuck it in your puffy jacket, and sneak out of the store without paying? For most of us, the answer is clearly “No.” Then how can you rationalize the exact same behavior over the Internet? You can’t. Don’t try.
- Adobe Online Store
- Adobe Education Store
- Adobe at Amazon.com
- Adobe software at Academic Superstore
- Adobe Graphic Design Software at PC Mall
- TheLightroomLab.com Store
Filed Under: Reviews
About the Author: Scott Rouse is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), photographer, teacher, and graphic- and web-designer in Missoula, MT. His photography focuses on wildlife and adventure sports and can be viewed at 
All valid points but what will it do to stem the tide?
My line of thinking is that if we could get these demographics involved in NAPP, we would intrinsically create more value for Photoshop in he long run.
Most of the reasons you give for why certain people pirate Adobe’s software can be easily remedied after spending a few months within the NAPP environment.
New users learn more about harnessing the program, thus creating more value.
Students gain an edge over their peers and Photoshop become a tool most likely used for life.
Our sense of community via our forums and portfolios opens up new connections to isolated users.
… and let’s face it, the $99 membership fee and the 15% Adobe discount sure would help too. ;D
We could go a long way to converting more pirated software users into legitimate, licensed users.
Now… how do we reach these people?
Agreed. I’ll work to promote NAPP on this site, as well as in the classroom. More discussion later, perhaps, on strengthening ties between NAPP and established bricks and mortar educational institutions?
For now, find out more about NAPP at http://www.photoshopuser.com.
Scott, I would ~love~ to discuss strengthening the ties between NAPP and educational institutions. Let’s talk soon. Maybe I can even arrange to donate some of our books to your school’s library.
=)
Sounds great. I’ll be in touch soon.
Hey Scott, thanks for the reactions on this topic. Much of the discussion on my article has died down, so it’s good to see it bubbling back up here.
As for the question raised by NAPP_News, “how do we reach these people?” — that’s the ultimate question here. Most of the users pirating the software aren’t part of professional organizations, educational environments, and many of them aren’t running a business using the software. Penetrating that market is extremely difficult because they just don’t care about the same things professionals do.
I think some of the solution lies with the various bloggers out there. Many people reading the blogs are in this group of pirates. If Adobe were to team up with various bloggers at various times for running promotions and whatnot, they could potentially convert some pirates to legitimate users. The best way to get people to buy into something is to offer a discount or give it away. And you know how blogs are, news of promotional stuff like that spreads like wildfire.
That’s a really good point, Brian. I probably took it a bit too personally in my article, but the theft thing does make me angry.
sort of a blind and reactionary (is that redundant?) article… 600 dollars is two months salary in india, rent and a couple of children and food and school fees eats most of it … piracy is a great boon in this circumstance … made thousands of customers, too …
An interesting point that I, admittedly, didn’t consider.
I agree that availability of the software or educational opportunities using the software should exist in these emerging economies and that the $600+ price tag is unrealistic for those on that kind of salary. That still doesn’t, in my mind, make theft/piracy ok.
I certainly don’t have the answer, but would love to continue a discussion on software availability in emerging economies.
Thoughts?
All valid points, I have a legal copy of the web suite which cost me a fortune – I do not mind paying the initial up-front cost of the suite, it is the constant updating of the software that has to be updated. My main program is Illustrator, and version 10 was the best version ever IMO and since then it has been buggier than ever and crashes more and more often. I had to update my software because I was getting artworks from other designers who were using the latest version, cough up another few hundred dollars for nothing. Not to mention the time lost from the crashing; And all the plugins that do not work. Adobe definitely made it tempting for me to pirate it.
I agree that unstable software can be quite frustrating. The continued product cycle of updates, of course, is necessary from a marketing/commercial standpoint for Adobe (and other software manufacturers).
I’ve been fairly happy with the improvements/upgrades/etc in Photoshop, but have personally don’t have a lot of experience with Illustrator.
Because I am an instructor, I keep pretty up-to-date on which versions I’m using/teaching, but I understand that can be tough for other end-users.
yes it is necessary for Adobe to update their products from a marketing perspective, but to me CS2 was a minor update over CS. It felt like Adobe was testing out their newly found interface on the general public, they both felt like pre-release beta’s to me. They became bloated and very resource hungry.
To be honest with you I felt very disappointed after those upgrades (CS3 was a different story) And I felt like I should be looking for a alternative and my money back. Even lightroom 1 was a very bug prone program, for the same price you can buy a whole operating system.
What I am trying to say is that there is almost no alternative to using Adobe products, they have the monopoly in the computing design area, which is a huge market and to me they are over charging for their products.
Those are certainly valid points. The amount of material presented in upgrades does vary. I’m curious to see how CS4 is accepted as most of the major changes appear to be usability- and optimization-related as opposed to huge impact features such as those in CS3. (I am fairly excited about content-aware scaling, however.)
I do agree with your point on Lightroom 1. I was an Aperture user from its launch date and really enjoyed it. My switch to Lightroom was a big drug out and lacked enthusiasm.
I think Lightroom 2 has done a good job of addressing some of those bugs from version 1. Still a ways to go, though.
I agree that Adobe seriously overprices their products. And especially the price differences on the different continents (mentioned in a different post already) are a serious pain in the back side. But you get an excellent product for it. And industry standard product.
And Adobe holds the monopoly at this moment. QuarkXPress is pretty pushed out of the market, because they overpriced their ONE product so much that Adobe’s Suite looked cheap in comparison.
So… What are we complaining about?
And prices are NEVER an excuse for piracy.
We don’t want people to steal our photographs of our websites either, do we?
But… By the way…
Now that we’re talking about it…
There might be a very good alternative.
For people who can’t afford the bling-bling, the great people behind Worth1000 have developed and are still developing an online suite of tools like Photoshop and Illustrator and it works like a charm.
It works within your webbrowser, so you don’t need to install any additional software (except for maybe a Flash plugin or something the like). It’s very intuitive, works in very big lines like Photoshop and Illustrator (with layer masks, and the whole 9 yards) and you can access it from anywhere where you have internet connection.
Where can you find it?
http://www.a.viary.com
A whole set of tools for you to try out and if you like it, for a very agreeable price.
If anyone’s interested, I have a good number of BETA-invites to give away still.
Send me a mail (arnoATfromadifferentangleDOTnet) if you want one.
Very cool. Thanks for the info, Arno. I’ve actually not heard of Aviary before.
I’d appreciate a BETA invite, if you don’t mind sharing. I’m sure you have my address…any of them will work…but scott@thelightroomlab.com is just fine.
Invite is sent
Thanks, Arno!
Let me know what you think!
Another point to make about the demographic of likely photoshop piraters is that since they’re not professionals, they’re not as likely to even need many of the advanced features. PS Elements seems to come bundled with anything and everything these days and I’ve thrown out more than a handful of legal copies myself in the last year. You can produce professional quality images in Elements.
Adobe Photoshop Elements
is a high-quality program…and much cheaper. That’s for sure.
It also integrates well with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
.
What some people do not realise is that in lot of countries (say, in Asia, Africa or or Eastern Europe) a copy of PS might cost something like 6 month income fo a working person- that would be equivalent to $15-$20,000 price in the US.
I do not have statistics but I guess the majority of the PS users, both legitimate and pirate, are amateur photographers.
Now, ask yourself, how many people would pay $15,000 for a piece of software to use for a hobby? And what would be percentage of the illegal use if it is priced that high?
Quite a few years ago I worked for a large software vendor and this was a problem we faced while moving to international markets – how to provide local pricing attractive to buy rather than steal the products, and how to avoid a reexport (and there was no ebay at the time but the problem was real
). There were no simple answers.
Microsoft, Autodesk and others face the same problems as Adobe does all the time and the solution is not yet found.
As to the alternatives, I quite agree that PS is the best software around and is a standard. However PSE and GIMP (which I use) or Photoimpact (which my kids use and love) would work well too. After trial we would puchase Lightroom which provide us with storage and workflow tools for a reasonable price and would cover probably 90% of our needs.
And by the way reason people pirate PS is a availability of training. You could probably find 1000s of tutorials on the web and very few for other products.