Piracy And The Photoshop Effect
First, the news.
Adobe just announced the immient release of Adobe Create Suite 6. Those eagerly anticipating the official release will be happy to know it’s coming within 30 days, and that Adobe is starting pre-orders for the software immediately.
They’re offering the CS packages at the same price as its 5.5 offerings, with pricing for the Design Standard ($1,299) and Master Collection ($2,599) packages pretty much unchanged.
One addition this year is Adobe’s launch of Creative Cloud, which gives subscribers access to all of Adobe’s Creative Suite tools, in addition to Lightroom 4, for a monthly fee ($49).
That’s the news, now on with the story.
Adobe’s prices for its professional-grade software have always been on the high side, and many, many, many people like to complain about it.
Today was no exception. Just visit one of the major tech sites, check the comments, and see for youself.
And along with the complaints, we have the pirates. People (typically anonymous for some reason) who say they’ll just download it, usually with some rationalization about price gouging and “the man” trying to stick it to us.
Like this fellow…
I don’t mind compensating people for their work. If I pirate a track and I like it, I’ll pay for it. But nobody can justify charging people $600 just for a single program like Photoshop.
Now, I’m not going to defend Adobe’s pricing for their professional products, because that’s another issue, and because there’s something else I’d like to address.
The Photoshop Effect.
You see, people who acquire and use Photoshop for free not only do not buy Photoshop…
They also don’t buy anything else.
Hence, there are no sales of the $99 program Adobe Elements, no sales of Pixelmator or PhotoPaint for $30, and no shareware graphics program author received his $10 “donation”.
Heck, even the Open Source Software program GIMP lost a potential user and supporter.
That one action not only locked Adobe out of a potential sale, but everyone else as well.
Including the developers that were attempting to compete on price, and that were trying to provide a worthwhile alternative, and who may well go out of business because no one is buying their software.
Complain about Adobe’s pricing all you want. Then either buy it, or buy something cheaper.
Because the only thing you do when you rip off Photoshop is ensure its market dominance.
