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Comment by PhasmaFelis | Hacker News Reader

> Adobe doesn't really have a choice here. They're doing this to comply with sanctions, not because they have any dog in fighting Maduro.

Adobe had a choice when they chose to stop selling software in favor of cloud services. This is a perfect illustration of why that choice was anti-consumer. It shouldn't be possible to revoke access to software functions that don't fundamentally require remote server support.

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What would you say Adobe should do differently in this situation? If nothing then I think the person you are replying is right when they say Adobe doesn't really have a choice here.

It would be fascinating if Adobe quietly started selling license keys and offline-friendly software again. They couldn’t sell directly to Venezuela, but software, ah, finds a way.

Selling actual software licenses again that don't require connecting to a remote server to use? Like the had for over a decade. They could still do point release updates on-line, but the software itself should come with a license key that just works without needing to validate over the Internet.

Even if they didn't want to do that, they could do the Jetbrains perpetual fall-back license model where if you hold a license for version x for a year, you get to keep version x. You still get version y when it comes out, but if you cancel before a certain time, it will fall back to your license for x forever, until you pay your subscription again.

Obviously there are many ways Adobe could have improved their licensing model from the start but the person I was replying implied that there were obvious alternative actions that they could take now. I agree with you but it still seems the case that there "isn't much they could do here".

That's my point. There are no good choices for them now. That doesn't mean they should be excused for the bad choices that led them to this point.

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