free downloads of the 2005 software CS2??

[sheridanpa]

I read here:

<http://photographylife.com/adobe-to-provide-creative-suite-2-for-free#more-42755>

that Adobe is offering free downloads of the 2005 software CS2.

The link provided there:<http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=cs2_downloads&pid=4485850> does not work.

Any one know answers?  Thank you.

[Darren88]

There are loads of threads on this already.  The answer is it's not true.

However, it's been reported so much that Adobe have got a serious problem if they want to control it.

[kglad]

the downloads are for licensed users of cs2 that need to migrate their software.

[Community_Admin · Accepted solution]

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.

[stagesound]

"Effective December 13, Adobe disabled the activation server for CS2 products and Acrobat 7 because of a technical glitch" - seriously!? You've got to be kidding! Does anyone believe an excuse like this!! Are we expected to believe that one of the world's leading software suppliers didn't have a backup of their server, and couldn't "roll back" to a stage where it didn't have the "technical glitch"!

Is "technical glitch" a coded way of saying that someone accidentaly deleted the last virtual machine which was running as an activation server?

The download site was unavailable a few hours ago, but it's back up now, and despite all the protesting from Adobe that they only intended the downloads to be available for existing customers, there's not a word on the download page to say so! How long would it take to update the site with a few lines explaining the licensing situation?

Apart from shooting themselves in the foot, what are Adobe playing at!?

[Eugen_Something]

Please, could you then confirm if it is NOT legal to use this software free of charge for either personal or commercial usage such as making sprites for software?

I understand that it was intended for the costumers with those versions, how about the ones that were interested into using  that specific photoshop version without having a license?

[kglad]

i don't believe it's legal to use any cs2 products unless you have a license to use those cs2 products.

[Eugen_Something]

thank you for your reply, what does mvp stand for?

the reason why im asking this is because i would like an official reply from anyone who actually works for adobe, dont get me wrong im not trying to discredit you, but i would appreciate a reply from someone who is hired by them, even mods and admins, i dont understand why they just dont say NO its not legal to use this software without having first bought a valid license and No this photoshop CS2 is not free to use.

Using this software for free would help me and mean alot to me, thats why i want an official confirmation as i dont want to break their rules if the free use of this software is against their will or against law.

[kglad]

i'm not an adobe employee.  you want a staff member (ie, someome using the adobe logo like community admin in message 3).

mvp:

MVP badge program

There are two affiliation badges in the Adobe expert community:

• Adobe Employee
• Adobe Community MVP

The intent of the affiliation badges is to:

• allow users to scan forum posts quickly for answers from credentialed experts
• credential employees, community moderators, and expert contributors
• encourage expert participation in the community forums

Community MVP criteria

The Adobe Community MVP (Most Valuable Participant) badge is awarded to Adobe expert community participants who meet the following criteria:

• Membership in one of the following credentialed Adobe community programs:
  • Adobe Community Moderator
  • Adobe Community Professional
  • Adobe Influencer
  • Adobe Education Leader
  • Adobe User Group Manager
  • Adobe Certified Instructor

OR

• Participants with 5,000 points + nominated by Adobe employee

AND

• Annual review of participation & renewal invite based upon:
• Participant's activity level (points earned and number of posts)
• Quality of answers
• Positive community participation and encouragement of others

MVP badge membership is reviewed annually. Renewal invites are sent out in the fall of each year.

[Eugen_Something]

thank you for your reply and congratulations for your status award.

when you say it's not legal to use any cs2 products unless you have a license to use those cs2 products.

do you mean its not legal to use this software with the serial key provided at the adobe page if you didnt buy a former serial key or that its not legal to use without any license at all?

[kglad]

i was going to say it's not legal to use unless you purchased (or otherwise earned) a cs2 license in the past.  but i'm not a lawyer and i actually don't know the legality of using the cs2 software that's available for download.

i do know that the software that's available for download is only inteneded for users that purchased (or otherwise earned) a cs2 license in the past and were having difficulty activating their software (because of an adobe problem).  the downloads were/are offered as a customer service gesture for those customers.

here's the most complete discussion of this topic with comments from adobe employees:  http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1114930?tstart=0

[Eugen_Something]

Thanks! i searched that thread before but couldnt find anything conclusive, it then redirected me to another thread which contained an answear by a member with the staff badge, i will safely say since he has the staff badge he is quite possibly employed by adobe

Here is his reply:

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated ...

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don't require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See <http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1114930>.

You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product!

          - Dov

Thanks for your feedback.

Here is the reference: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4974662#4974662

I guess thats pretty much official, Adobe Photoshop CS2 is NOT free after all

Thank you for your help finding this answear, i will inform the others i know, that its indeed not free and redirect them to that link, there i go again to that awfull ms paint for my sprites.

Maybe 1 day they will change it to free who knows.

[kglad]

ms paint?  you must really be good to get worthwhile graphics out of that.  you could go back to school and get student pricing.  i think that would be a better option.

[Eugen_Something]

xD i know ms paint is severly limited and no im a complete amateur to drawing, but thats what i use, either that or very rarely GIMP when it decides to not crash, however as free as gimp can be, its no match for layer effects and filters like photoshop, thats the main reason i used photoshop, to produce filters and sprite effects to my own sprites and with those create other sprites, such as this:

http://imageshack.us/a/img856/485/newship.jpg

EDIT: Made that in a rush, as you can see it doesnt have many details on it yet, but anyways that was the result of 2 black shapes.

[ginopilot]

Why don't adobe ask for a legit serial before give the download page? This and the lack of any license limitation on the download page is very strange.

Two options:

- the one who make that thing is stupid.

- the intent is different

Which one?

[ATPIT99]

Is the free CS2 Suite for commecrial use as well?

[Eugen_Something]

if u read my reply a bit up you will see that theres an official statement saying that it is NOT free.

[ginopilot]

nothing in the donwlonad pages, nothing in the eula, nothing during intall. Soo it's free unless they change something. Legaly no one could tell it's not free.

[lcf]

1. Adobe exposed this page http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html - freely available to anyone, with valid serial numbers. It doesn't even require Adobe ID, this time.

2. There is no single word there it's meant only for people who already own CS2.

Taking 1 and 2 into account, it's pretty much the same as loud shout "IT'S FREE!" to me. I'm not a lawyer, though, and would like to see some official (like exec-approved) company statement on that.

[Eugen_Something]

Yeah me too, its odd if they dont want it to be free to make it available free of charge even after the link beying temporarly dead, who knows maybe they are changing their mind? but untill then the official statement we all have is that its not free so we cant decide for their own products.

[lcf]

EULA says license is granted, if software was obtained from Adobe. Both software and serial numbers were made public on official Adobe servers, with no extra terms displayed, so suppose thing is already done.

[jamesone111]

This is just what I was looking at. The EULA says a licence is granted,.

"If you obtained the Software from Adobe or one of its authorized licensees and as long as you comply with the terms of this agreement, Adobe grants you a non-exclusive license to use the Software in the manner and for the purposes described in the Documentation, as further set forth below. See Section 14 for specific provisions related to certain components."  

So anyone going to that page, definitely obtained the sotware from Adobe, so they are granted a non-exclusive licence.   But that would normally result in a version which expired for lack of a key (and the licence also talks about activation)

But an activation key is also on the page where the installation media is downloaded : so how is anyone expected to know that Adobe's intent isn't to give the key to old version of the software to anyone who wants one, regardless of what they have purchased (or not)  ?

[WBoswell]

If it isn't free then I supposed Adobe can revoke the serial number that anyone can use then reissue new serial numbers to those who already have a CS2 license.  They should have done that in the first place instead of this fiasco.  Anyone with a legal serial number should already be in Adobe's system so why didn't they do it right the first time?  Unless that was lost in the server mess too.

[Mohammed Amjed Khan]

from where I can Download CS2 Middle Eastern Versions please share the link

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Muhammad Amjad Khan Abro the CS2 Middle Eastern version was never offered by Adobe.  You will want to contact Winsoft if you need replacement copies of your installation software.  You can find their website at http://www.winsoft-international.com.