Adobe Uses Shame To Tackle Software Piracy

Piracy is bad, and you shouldn't do it. But that doesn't stop many people from doing it. While it's hard to say which company has their software pirated the most, Adobe is a company that is no stranger to the issue. They've tried different methods to prevent piracy, but today they're taking a different approach, shame.

That's right, Adobe wants to shame you into paying for the software on your computer. It's not like the people don't know that they've installed software without paying for it. But after a while you stop thinking "I'll just open my pirated copy of Photoshop that I didn't pay for" and thinking "I'll just open Photoshop." So now Adobe is going to start giving you a little reminder.

The company is starting to bundle their software with a Software Integrity Service. This checks your computer to see if it has any pirated Adobe programs on it. If it does, you'll start getting a warning that pops up every time you open the program.

The pop up will notify you that you're not using a genuine copy of the program, and offers up a link that you can follow. That link leads you to this page. The page essentially lets you know why you have received the notification, and gives you the option to report the company that sold you the software (if you paid for it).

What is particularly interesting isn't what this check does, but what it doesn't do. Since Adobe knows that you're running pirated software, you'd think that they would disable that software. But Adobe isn't doing that. You can continue to use the software, and simply deal with being shamed every time you open it.

So far, the piracy check is only affecting users in the US using pirated copies of Adobe Acrobat X. It will likely be expanded to other programs, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.

VIA: TorrentFreak