I will comment only on the article MR posted here:
"For example, piracy has always been a huge problem. Now, that will be much reduced."
No, I think piracy will in all likelihood increase as a result. Activation and copy protection mechanisms have been hacked and cracked since they arrived on the scene two decades or more ago. Cloud based or not; this will be no exception.
+1 Living in Asia for so long I have what some would consider a worrisome attitude towards copy protection. In most SEA countries I've lived or done business I've observed all but the most westernised or successful local companies either use pirated software, or a good percentage of their software is pirated. Same goes for the Middle Eastern countries I've observed. And of course in these places pirated software, music, movies, are available for one to several dollars at most. A reliably working copy of CS6 complete with the crack that allows it to download the latest updates runs $4 in Thailand's infamous Pantip Plaza. And of course you can find the same but more risky because of the risk of malware.. on most torrent sites.
A software company knows there are several popular ways of getting people to use their product. Sell it. Give it away. Or develop an inadequate protection system knowing full well a great many will pirate their product. They also know this isn't all a downside. There are upsides to having your product pirated. Someone might like it enough to actually buy it, but mostly it increases the user base. If your competitor in Thailand is using the latest best software (for free without penalty) then you'll need to go pay for it to complete. It's more complex than this but you get the picture.
And Adobe or any other company can easily prevent this. So can Microsoft and the others. But if they did, billions would be using some Chinese brand (and paying for it, countries don't let their citizens pirate their own software) and that company would further develop their product into a very good or better alternative that we'd start buying. There is no good solution to the problem other than international cooperation, but even that isn't going to get a private citizen making $150 a month to pay $200 for the latest version of Win7. They'd have to charge roughly the same percentage of the average income.. and then tourist and others would travel and buy it, or create a rampant black market.
So they allow piracy because it benefits them and keeps them on top of the game. Which is all well and good until they take some single mom to court and try and collect $200,000 because her son downloaded the lastest Justin Beiber CD.. Our entire judicial punishment system is predicated on the "make an example of" mindset..
So ya, I agree. CC will become available on torrent sites just like CS6 is now, as well cracks to circumvent the phone in requirement just like there is to circumvent the activation requirement now. And more people will pirate and feel they're justified BECAUSE Adobe changed their policy to something they see as unfair. And face it, any company doubling their price (or worse) will be seen as unfair.
Now let's talk about subscriptions.. something else I've written about forever. Any company that can get their customers to "subscribe" becomes golden. Their worth, their credit, their ability to raise investors, all of it. Subscription is the holy grail of business. Newspapers and then magazines discovered this by accident.. and it really took off.
If you look at what you're subscribing too already: Electricity, water, sewer, trash, in a way a mortgage, cable, internet, cell phones, regular phones, pest control, gardeners, auto leases, and even auto loans are a structured subscription. and then there are subscriptions on top of subscriptions. What you say? Yep, your regular phone and then line protection on top of that. Water and line protection. Cable, cablebox, modem, Voip, AND line protection. The list is very long. When you add to this the average American's credit card debt.. because "payments" like "subscriptions" trick many consumers into buying more than they can afford.. there's nothing left for food. But no worries, many diet companies will send your meals to you. For a low monthly price..
Anyone forgotten what cash feels like? I challenge you to get your next pay check in cash. Hold it in your hand.. look at it. And then go to the post office and start buying money orders for all of your subscriptions. See if that changes your perspective a bit. We rarely hold cash in our hands any more.. it's all electronic. Not real.
