First post, by vetz
- Rank
- l33t
I own a copy of Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard which I purchased many years ago. Even though new versions have arrived on the marked, it has covered my need when it comes to PDF authoring up untill now.
I wanted to install it on my Thinkpad T61p laptop and I noticed two things:
1. Adobe had discontinued the activation servers and telephone activation back in 2017.
2. The backup solution had been taken down in December 2019 with no replacement and with no explanation given beside "Adobe Acrobat 8 is old software and not supported, buy a new version to continue using Adobe Acrobat".
In the interim period between 2017 and 2019 you could login to your Adobe account, add the product key and you'd get a new serial which worked with a version of Adobe Acrobat 8 which did not require activation. I unfortunately didn't do this within the timeframe and I'm now stuck with a physical copy that cannot be used in any form.
I've searched the internet trying to figure out how to get around the activation issue, but apparently nobody cared to make a crack for the standard version I own, only the professional version. I did manage to find the version of Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard which do not include activation (released later by Adobe), but with no possibility to acquire a new product key I'm stuck. Only option is for me to illegally get the Professional version.
That brings me back to the topic I want to discuss. I believe we'll see more of this in the future, especially for software released from 2005 and onwards which required internet activation. We have similar issues with activating 2000s Microsoft products like Windows XP, Office XP and Office 2003 (here phone activation still works as of 2021). I personally have no moral qualms about using pirated tools to continue using software I have acquired legally/purchased, but how do you view it? What can the community do to preserve the usability of software with these kinds of copyprotections?