Francois Labreque <fla### [at] videotronca> wrote:

>
> Likewise, leaving the door unlocked (or leaving the FTP site open) does
> not give people permission to steal your furniture (your 8 year old
> software).
>
> Adobe has officially said that people were not allowed to download this,
> it was only offered as a service to legal owners of CS2 because their
> authentication server was no longer online.
>
> This is exactly like my car dealer who offers free coffee and pastries
> while I get my car serviced.  It doesn't mean that all the neighborhood
> hobos are allowed to come in and eat for free.
>

Hmm, those are valid points, that I didn't consider.

But here's the catch (IMO): Adobe's official announcement is not actually ON the
download page--it seems to be everywhere *but* there. (On techie sites, that
is.) The 'philosophical' (legal?) question is, why isn't it there? Adobe, for
whatever reason, has not bothered to make its position crystal-clear, in the
very place that matters. I find that really strange. Someone simply stumbling
onto their page--and honestly ignorant of Adobe's statements elsewhere--would be
led to believe that there's no problem in downloading the stuff. (Putting aside
questions of how much each of us should know about copyright law and software
licensing--which are rather arcane subjects, except to lawyers.)

Of course, I can't claim such naivete (re: Adobe's statement, anyway)--and I'm
beginning to think that I've done something *really wrong* :-(  Well...maybe not
;-) It's a matter of opinion in this odd case. (And *that's* even debatable I
suppose, if only from an ethical standpoint.)

Something to ponder: Since the download page doesn't 'match' Adobe's official
announcement, it makes me wonder if there is some kind of mild turmoil going on
within the company--various factions having differing opinions as to what to do
about this situation. Otherwise, it seems to me that Adobe would have done
*something* more obvious and clear by now, to make things less equivocal. (The
company's "do not download" statement appearing solely on various techie sites
doesn't qualify as 'unequivocal,' in light of the download page itself saying
nothing similar.)

OR, as has been mentioned, perhaps Adobe just doesn't care.

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