Open source aficionados are going to love this one – Adobe’s Photoshop does have a whole lot of users, but that’s no reason for the company to break out the champagne. Why? Because more than half of these users have not purchased their copy through legitimate means; in plain English, this means that most users of Photoshop have pirated their software, and that Adobe has lost out on tons of revenue.
I guess it’s easier to justify piracy when the original comes at a whopping $600. But the question still remains – why do people still pirate Photoshop when there are numerous open source alternatives? Some of them like the Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) are almost equivalent to Adobe’s image editor, and the best part is, they’re free. Ok, so the Gimp and other free online photo editing tools don’t offer support for CMYK (except the one from KOffice named Krita) and the RAW digital camera format or license PANTONE, but besides that, they should suffice for all your image editing needs, unless you’re going to use an editing tool for commercial purposes.
But that does not explain why people who want to crop and edit their photos just to impress their friends with their nifty online albums want to do it with Photoshop. What is it that drives them to pirate this program that’s so heavy on features that not many people know how to use the entire package? I guess there’s no easy answer to this question.
Maybe those who pirate the program want other people to believe they own legitimate copies of Photoshop – I mean, who’s to know the difference besides the guys who supply the license? Or maybe they feel they will use all or at least most of the features in Photoshop sometime in the near future and are preparing themselves for that fine day. It may even be a case of turning their noses up at Adobe’s audacity in setting such a high price for the package – see, we can still use your software without paying your snotty license fees.
Whatever the reason, there’s no doubting the fact that Photoshop remains one of the most popular image editing tools ever developed. And if nothing else, Adobe can claim this to their credit.
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October 25, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I’m not too sure if you know this but many people don’t see piracy as PIRACY! And despite the efforts of big conglomerates to make us think piracy is equivalent to killing babies, it is not. So I guess it will continue to be popular on both sides of the law.
October 25, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I understand piracy very well and I think that if it wouldn’t exist many hugely popular programs and applications wouldn’t be nearly as popular as they are. Photoshop makes no exception and Adobe understands that very well.
October 26, 2008 at 1:14 am
I understand why some people pirate the software, but personally, mine is legit. Although one bug I have with the whole CS suite is that I cannot install it all on both my MacBook and my iMac (Im using CS2 until I upgrade). I guess the ‘pirates’ win with this issue too…
October 26, 2008 at 1:54 am
Huh, it’s really clear why people prefer to use Photoshop instead of Gimp for example - there are lot more tutorials, feedback, articles all around the web then any other program. Usually people just starting piratize, because they have heard only about Photoshop..it’s all over the web. That’s my opinion..:)
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October 26, 2008 at 10:17 am
There are indeed less Gimp tutorials available, but as functionality, for someone who doesn’t do professional graphic editing they’re basically the same. I think from a piracy point of view, Photoshop is a victim of its own fame. Everybody wants to be a Photoshop superstar.
October 26, 2008 at 2:48 pm
It makes you think that if Adobe lowered their price for their applications how they could end up with so much more money in the end?
It’s a bit ironic - but it works.
October 26, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I’m confident they would end up with more money, but I think they’re pretty happy with what they’re making right now, which is a lot.
October 27, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Without piracy, I think Adobe Photoshop wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now.
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October 27, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Sarah, by stating “…and that Adobe has lost out on tons of revenue” you’re making the same wrong assumption just like the movie and the music industry does.
Having a pirated version of a software, movie or music does not mean that the legit version would have been purchased if the pirated version would not exit.
I have dowbloaded a lot of cult/trash/obscure stuff to try out and out of curiosity…but 90% of it I would not have bought.
Probably I would have never heard of at all!
November 2, 2008 at 1:21 am
Well, let’s just be honest, The GIMP sucks It might be “almost as complete” feature wise, but usability wise, it’s a joke. I’m a very advanced computer user, and if I have to scratch my head at how to do a simple action in GIMP, it’s going to be heinous for anyone else. So GIMP is free, but it is harder to use, slower and oftentimes, I think it is easier for the average person to find a cracked copy of Photoshop rather than to learn/try GIMP.
Photoshop Elements isn’t promoted as much as it should be, and I think if it were, people who pirate Photoshop for basic use might be more inclined to buy.
But I tend to agree, its success and name brand popularity are part of the reason it is so frequently pirated.
In college, I always got the student version discounts. Now that I’m out of school, I buy it legit because one or two jobs can pay it off and I don’t have to worry about keeping it working or finding updates or you know, feeling bad about downloading a pirated copy.
I do disagree with Tschai that every single download would not result in a sale anyway so the net loss is zero — that might be true for a lot of people, but if it were harder to find or crack, I do think plenty of people would have to assess whether or not it was worth it to purchase and that some would legitimately do it. When I was in college, most of my peers pirated it - I didn’t, I got the student discount (actually, better than that because our Adobe rep totally hooked me up) — but in some classes, it WAS a requirement. If they didn’t steal it, they would have to buy it — otherwise you couldn’t complete the class (a $600 software requirement for a suite of tools is nothing when you are paying $30,000+ for tuition).
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July 9, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I don’t think that you can say that because of pirating Adobe loses a whole amount of money. Usually those who have a pirate copy wouldn’t be willing to spent the money if they normaly had to. Actually , you just might say that Adobe has something to gain out of this … becoming more popular.