Adobe tells users of old Premiere versions that they are not allowed to use them

So Adobe has a licensing issue with Dolby or an "other third party" as they put it - and end users who paid for the software as recently as 3 months ago are supposed to switch versions in the middle of a project, or be "subject to infringement claims"(!?) in some IP proxy war?

It seems like this is Adobe's problem. I don't know if throwing their customers under the bus was a sad attempt at fomenting pressure on Dolby to capitulate, but it's really scummy and a bad look for Adobe.

I got this notice re photoshop that I pay for monthly and I was utterly confused. But it was a good reminder to finally cancel the subscription and switch to another software for a one time fee.

I remember when they took down the CS2 activation servers and they made everything available for download with a universal serial number. It was available for a long time, for years. Lot of people downloaded those versions even tho it was technically still illegal. But it was "free" and straight from Adobe. Abandonware if we can say that. Still have my copy too, made a backup just in case. And the page was up until last week and they nuked that too.

And yeah all the CS2 apps are still working fine in 2019 under Windows 10 even tho they are 14 years old.

In case someone is looking for a free alternative, check Davinci Resolve out from Black Magic.

Related and recent: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19863481

How prescient was to buy CS6 in the last days of its availability...

Hmm. Weren't things like "support", "guarantees", "reliability", etc the original premise to use proprietary stuff?

I wonder if comparable technologies exist that are open, or at least free to use.

Isn't it about unlicensed content / licenses by third parties that ran out? The last sentence in that message is pretty telling, it's about claims by third parties and not Adobe.

Seems reasonable that they don't offer those versions as a download anymore (I guess you could question if they should offer those old versions without that unlicensed content/tools now. But I mean, you opted in to use their Software as a Service products. There are great alternatives for (nearly) all of their tools these days.)