"If I was a pro, I'd have to subscribe ..."
Why?
Because it's the proper way - provided all parties play fair. Most of us want to play a fair game. But AdobeĀ“s business is not fair in this matter. It is very creative, but the creativity has moved from exploring new possibilities of editing an image to invent a goldlined paying system. Adobe cheat us quietly and efficiently.
Within a decade you may easily have paid Adobe 36.000 dollars if you have a number of licenses running: 10 years times 12 months times 30 dollars times 10 licenses.
"What's the deal," you may say - "my customers pay," and thereby you throw the monkey to another consumer. We all row the same boat.
A few years ago your expense would have been a fraction, around 5.000 dollars for the same period - or strikingly smaller. The small-amounts-psychology makes the cheat invisible. The Adobe lovers don't do math here for a good reason. The bottom line is this - we all pay considerable more money after this "rent a software" business was brought upon us - for largely the same product. How can anybody fall in love with that - unless he's a shareholder?
On the top of this - Adobe stamps each and every image of yours with its references to this and that - as if your images were Adobe's property - or you had not yet paid for your use of Photoshop.
So why pay? If you don't sell your images to Adobe, who cares?
In a war you have to match your enemy. If he smartens you out - you need to get smarter!
"This is the well known prescription for escalating a war - the ungodly way into a deadly spiral of attacks and counterattacks," the upset bonus Paters will cry.
Yes, and no.
In this case our army would count an endless number of conscious consumers. Adobe's gurus and disciples would be outnumbered 100 to a million from the beginning, and within a couple of years Adobe would yield. Of course this would demand loyalty to your fellow users, and solidarity is an ugly world. Some made it ugly for others and serious for themselves - because it works.
Conscious users would win the war, and Adobe would have to lower the bridge and begin to communicate for real. When Adobe listened to us again, we would tell them to manage greediness, to do fair trade, to do their very best - OR stay out of business.
Adobe would agree to give up the Cloud madness and sell us a lifelong license to the newest version of Photoshop at any time - and Adobe would promise to keep our older versions running for the rest of our time. Adobe would still earn very good money.
You could put your cracked copy of Photoshop away (without deleting it!).
"Search for another software - and let Adobe in peace," the chills demand. Well, monopolies exist because they are allowed to grow into monopolies and - as the word says - monopolies has no competitors. Competitors are removed from the market with the money you pay en excess of the real value of Adobe's products.
The future alternative to this is a gilded monopolized Adobe, arrogantly instructing you from behind thick walls, a much poorer you and a never ending exploitation.