No I wouldn’t consider it piracy if you paid a legit dealer. The issue has to do with exporting the software from the states. There is the export tax, legal issues if any encryption methods are used, etc. For example if Adobe decides to add an encryption method to make it difficult for someone to see your files, then that software can not be exported from the states. In fact acrobat has such an option, so acrobat should not be exportable. On the other hand I do not know what legal loop holes Adobe went through to sell their software overseas. So it may be possible that Adobe has the proper paper work for exporting with the encryption algorithm in place. I never seen a version from overseas so I really do not know. Then again it may depend on the type of encryption.
Can I upgrade my current English software using the US purchased Universal English software?
No. Serials are region specific and an US update serial will collide with a European one. You could only assume this would work, if you bought a full version, not an update. Activation will be no problem, but similar to the other issue, you might not be able to register the software at all. Apart from the serial itself, your IP will be tracked and you may not gain access to the correct site. You can of course circumvent the latter, but that’s between you and your country’s legal system. Here in Germany it would constitute a law offense (fraudulent claim of services by pretence) and Adobe could have your scalp for it, if they were to pursue it. Also, as a freelancer who has a business tax ID, you probably would have declare it to customs, adding further fees and taxes or otherwise you may not be able to tax-deduct it.
Mylenium
Hmm! Interesting! Local tax and custom stuff is not an issue as even after factoring all that in it would have come $600-$800 USD cheaper.
I guess I will have to order it locally if I want to stay fully legit. I feel ripped off though 🙁 Damn I will be losing (umm! "investing") lot of money this year in software 🙁 I will have to postpone hardware upgrade to next year.
I wish my parent’s had not brought me up to be so legit!
I ordered CS2 Design Prem Upgrade from a Canadian web site a while ago now. I got my Toronto based sister to ship it over to me as a parcel! It worked! No problems installing, activating or registering!
Oh yes, one Adobe rep who I spoke to said it may not install. Obviously, they were wrong.
Ian
I have pointed out that a lot of the extra cost has to do with EU VAT and local country VATs, hencely the extra costs do add up.
Bart the country I live in is non-EU and has under 8% VAT, factoring all that in still does not explain $1000USD difference in price. The only thing that explains it is Adobe’s GREED!
In today’s age of electronic downloads charging $1000USD etc even as I said factoring vat, postage, customs is shameful!
Well there has to be more to this than ‘Adobe is greedy’.
don’t say greedy, say "opportunistic". 😉
I pre-ordered from the following website in US and they ship globally, people have had no problem activating and registering in Europe according to them.
<
http://toolfarm.com/adobecs4matrix.html>
Not only Adobe can be greedy and opportunistic!
Is it greed or is it the fact that many people…I MEAN, ALOT OF PEOPLE..crack the software. If everyone bought a legit copy the price would be, for want of a better word, reasonable. The R&D, programmers, marketing, etc still need to be paid for their hard work….and that ain’t cheap!!!
So why do they make it so much dearer outside the USA?
I think you are missing the point!
Here’s a thought. Perhaps the price is higher outside the states, because it is more apt to become pirated because it is harder to punish those who pirate. Therefore the price is raised to justify the difference. In a sense those who are legit pay for those who are not. So the whole customer base outside the states gets punished for the few that can not get punished.
Like I said just a thought.
I MEAN, ALOT OF PEOPLE..crack the software
a lot of those same people go and buy it later when they can afford it, because it’s what they learned on. and a lot of others wouldn’t buy it anyway if they HAD to. they’d use gimp to put sarah palin’s head on a pr0n picture.
If everyone bought a legit copy the price would be, for want of a better word, reasonable
yes chris, there there. have another cup of kool-aid. 😉
I believe the fact that its double the price in western nations outside the US (americas) is in fact an invitation to piracy.
of course it is.
oooh! <tin foil hat>adobe’s in league with the us gubmint and they want fur’ners to pirate potatoshop so’n they can spy on them!</tin foil hat>
Here’s a thought.
here’s another. they charge what they can, BECAUSE they can. "they"’re a soul-less corporation whose sole purpouse is to MAKE MORE MONEY. "they" could care less what we as users think. i’m not saying there aren’t many many fine people who work FOR adobe and work to make photoshop the best it can be, but you must realize, THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT RUN THE SHOW AND THEY NEVER WILL.
does everyone know that the gimp 2.6 was released the other day? here’s the windows installer: <
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html>
release notes:
<
http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.6.html>
here’s another. they charge what they can, BECAUSE they can. "they"’re a soul-less corporation whose sole purpouse is to MAKE MORE MONEY. "they" could care less what we as users think. i’m not saying there aren’t many many fine people who work FOR adobe and work to make photoshop the best it can be, but you must realize, THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT RUN THE SHOW AND THEY NEVER WILL.
Who said anything about ‘running the show’ – they still need to be paid. …..or should we all just ‘stick it to the man’ and get the hack? EH?
or should we all just ‘stick it to the man’ and get the hack? EH?
no of course not. it’s just that there are other alternatives than sticking it to the customer every chance you can BECAUSE you can. the RIAA is learning this, the MPAA will be soon.
the point of the thread is that adobe charges more in europe. it’s my contention that they do so simply because they can. that’s what they’re in business to do.
piracy, in this case, is a straw man argument. it has no bearing whatever on what adobe charges, except as possibly an excuse to charge more.
Well said!
People pirate in USA as well so why should Europe only bear that cost? Slapping people who are doing the right thing with higher prices is not very nice is it? At least spread that cost evenly instead of tilting it so SEVERELY against Europeans!
$1000 extra hurts me as I have to buy other software as well. $1000 could go towards upgrading my hardware.
Can we not start another "Eurpopeans are getting screwed by Adobe pricing" thread again. This has been beaten to death already. What it boils down to is posting this kind of thing here does no good, we are users not Adobe. Complain to Adobe directly. Pay the price for the software you want or using something else.
Robert
I think Dave is right, they charge more because they can. Either we’re richer or we are more stupid than americans. Both these options are difficult to accept for a european 🙂 But hey, I still make more money from the software than I’m paying for it. And they know it.
Well why do they treat us Canadians so nicely. I am upgrading to the Master Suite CS4 from MM Studio 8 for $1600 and that is a $400 price drop from CS3. How does that make Adobe so shiftless & greedy? There has to something else going on other than theories from the tinfoil hat brigade.
I still make more money from the software than I’m paying for it. And they know it.
bingo! 🙂
Who’s ‘the tinfoil hat brigade’ Bart, and did you read the link provided in post #14?
What has you making lot of money or not making lot of money got to do with being treated unfairly? I am glad that you are making enough money to throw away $1000. I would rather give the extra $1000 to charity than greedy share holders.
"Tinfoil hat"? :-O Some people just don’t have the intellect to grasp the facts so they talk from their back side. Why don’t you tell me what is going on apart from corporate greed? Don’t come out with vague crap like "something else going on". Either too many blind fan boys here or Adobe sends their marketing people to act like fan boys ;-P
bart drinks a lot of kool-aid. you have to cut him some slack! XD
Yeah..and it’s Canadian Kool-Aide at that.
The non-North American pricing is simply out of whack.
Bob
Ok, I can’t access the Quark Store for Europe, Quark is $799USD in NA, what is the price in the EU? Can one of you check?
you know we don’t fight back.
that’s why you invented hockey, eh? 🙂
yeah, it’s that vicarious thing, precursor to reality TV.
Adobe doesn’t completely control the cost of its software outside the US. The software costs more outside the US because it is sold through non-US distributors who take responsibility for customer support, etc. Those distributors ultimately decide what price to set, and since they are likely the sole wholesale distributors within an area, or for a particular language version, they can mark up the US retail price significantly. Some of these distributors may be fully or partly owned by Adobe, some may not.
The software costs more outside the US because it is sold through non-US distributors
If you mean Adobe UK and Adobe Deutschland for example, they might be non-US but they are wholly owned subsidiaries of Adobe Inc and they still charge criminally high mark-ups!
And the "More expensive support" argument is a load of bull.
Where can I get a straight answer about-
If an upgrade from Photoshop CS2 European version will upgrade and activate to Production studio bought from USA?
The cost of Photoshop here in the UK is almost twice that paid in the US. I paid £169 for my upgrade to Photoshop CS4 including shipping. The full boxed product is over £560. However, I was looking at the cost of educational licences after a question on a forum I visit – children at school (even little ones at primary school) can qualify for an educational licence even though most could never get their head around the program. Someone doing a part-time HNC at college can’t, they have to be on a full-time course lasting at least two years at a college that is accredited to award degrees.
Now I can understand Microsoft having such a flexible licence for their Office Suite, but why does Adobe make us subsidise parents of young school kids? Kids that age don’t need such a complex program, even Elements would probably stump all but the brightest. Those studying at higher level on a relevant course I don’t have a problem with!
Joanne
I’m in Hong Kong. Adobe software here costs around 40 percent more than the prices found on Amazon and other US online retailers. Amazon won’t ship outside the USA, but many other legitimate dealers will (search for photo supply places). What irritates me is that even the DOWNLOAD versions costs more if I use the Adobe Hong Kong website.
So I always order mine from the USA and have it shipped to me. Since I always buy the USA version, I’ve never had an issue with serial numbers and upgrades.
I did have an issue when I bought CS3 about a week before they announced CS3.3 (with Acrobat 9). I was entitled to a free upgrade direct from Adobe, but they wouldn’t ship to a non-US address.
Don’t buy from eBay: those are mainly pirated copies. You’ll find decent USA discounted prices from legitimate and trustworthy USA-based retailers, who ship via FedEx, so the whole thing is above-board and reliable.
First of all, The US Dept of Commerce says you can buy the software since no US laws are broken.
It’s up to the publisher to decide whether or not they will provide support to you if and when you will need it.
Many institutions buy a copy locally and use that for support and get the rest from US distributors who ship software around the world. These US dealers have been supplying this service to institutions and businesses for over 20 years.
David Nicole did you register your product with HongKong as your location/address?
Which US reseller do you buy your stuff from?
I registered with Hong Kong as my address. But when I phone HK support, they look at the serial number and tell me I have to phone the USA.
I don’t want to tell you which specific retailer I bought from, because I don’t want Adobe to use my statement to crack down on them. Already they prevent Amazon and other high-profile retailers from shipping outside the USA.
Go to Google’s "Shopping" page and enter "Photoshop CS4". There are several legitimate retailers of photo and video equipment in different parts of the USA, and they all charge around the same discounted price.
Thanks David. I am just worried that if my Photoshop upgrade activation has a problem then I might end up "penny wise pound foolish". You did the smart thing by always buying US version instead of mixing.
I have to decide if saving $500 is worth the risk of buying from USA instead of locally 🙂
Cap, if you buy a USA version to save money, make sure you buy from a retailer that has a 30 day return policy. If you can’t activate and register the upgraded software based on your existing licenses, then return it for a refund. Surely that’s worth the $500 savings, and at worst you have to pay for return shipping and lose the savings.
I got these ADOBE CS4 software for sell at LOW price!
Photoshop CS4 $99!
Flash CS4 $89
Dreamweaver $79
ADOBE CS4 Master Collection for $249
contact me at dot com
