Venezuela? Sanctioned. Adobe users? Banned! Refunds? Denied. - Adobe bans Venezuelan users to comply with US sanctions, no refunds

[rcmaehl]

Source:
BCC

Adobe
Gizmodo

BleepingComputer (qoute/media source)

 

Summary:

Adobe is "ceasing all activity with entities and individuals in Venezuela" including cancelling subscriptions to comply with US Sanctions

 

Media:

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

Adobe published today a support document saying that the company is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela starting October 28 due to U.S. Government's Executive Order 13884. "The U.S. Government issued Executive Order 13884, the practical effect of which is to prohibit almost all transactions and services between U.S. companies, entities, and individuals in Venezuela. To remain compliant with this order, Adobe is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela," says Adobe. "Executive Order 13884 was issued with no expiration date" Adobe will also not issue any refunds after canceling its Venezuelan customers' subscriptions seeing that "Executive order 13884, orders the cessation of all activity with the entities including no sales, service, support, refunds, credits, etc." The company will no longer provide access to any of its services and software to Venezuelan citizens, and it will also prohibit them from using its free products, as well as block them from making any future purchases. "Under Executive Order 13884, U.S. companies are severely restricted in the business it carries out within Venezuela. As a result, we are ceasing all activity with entities and individuals in Venezuela as well as those who otherwise meet the criteria of Executive Order 13884 or other U.S. sanctions regulations" "We apologize for the inconvenience," Venezuelan customers who will have their accounts deactivated this month have until October 28, 2019, to download any content they might have saved on the platform and stored within their Adobe accounts. Users have also started receiving email notifications regarding Adobe's move to ban the accounts of all its Venezuelan users. According to their letter, users will no longer be able to access their accounts, the Adobe.com online platform, or the company's software or services.

 

My Thoughts:

Just another example of why Software as a Service is a horrible idea, political non-sense affecting use. It doesn't even appear Adobe is providing dispute forms for users who may have be false-positively identified, unlike github. I'm sure Adobe torrents are going to be heavily seeded within the next few weeks.  

[RejZoR]

This is why I like to actually OWN things...

[TVwazhere]

Next Week's @rcmaehl's Topic Title:

 

Premire Pro Pirated! - Number of Torrented Copies of Adobe's Software Skyrocket with news of the Venezuelan Pull-Out

[Princess Luna]

[Orangeator]

Well, I mean I wouldn't get too mad at Adobe. They are just following the current law. But sucks for editors and creators in Venezuela... 

[FezBoy]

Well, it's time for VPNS and bitcoin

[Windows7ge]

I gotta second RejZoR. This definitely sucks for Adobe users in Venezuela but at the same time this is why I hate relying on software/services where the hosts can just go *yoink* and disable the software even if it's downloaded on your machine.

[JZStudios]

29 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Next Week's @rcmaehl's Topic Title:

 

Premire Pro Pirated! - Number of Torrented Copies of Adobe's Software Skyrocket with news of the Venezuelan Pull-Out

Adobe should know you never pull out.

 

+1 to "Another good example of why the service model sucks." I'd rather pay the $1000 for the products I need and be done with it and actually own it. Or, seeing as how they've become so complacent lately, just find a cheaper alternative like Affinity, which a bunch of people have freely switched to and say it has a bunch of features they've been asking for years from Adobe. $50 and you own it for life, including updates. At this point pretty much everything reads and writes the Adobe formats too, so compatibility isn't even an issue. They have alternatives for Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

30 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

I wouldn't say petty, since every single editor in the area depends on having an internet connection to adobe (kek) to work.

 

.... what's another word for furious that starts with P....?

Pissed. Peeved... that's all I got off the top of my head.

provoked could work.

13 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

I was told Venezuela is a socialist utopia, this piece of news proves it true

Yeah, along with the nation-wide diet! How could this happen?

[JZStudios]

Oh, but while it sucks that Adobe is pulling out, at least you only pay monthly, so you aren't completely screwed over. I guess there's yearly plans too, but then at least it's happening at the end of October instead of like... February.

[JZStudios]

2 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

oh jeez those are words i should easily know ( /)_(\

 

imagine those who bought a year's worth YESTERDAY

Oh, yeah. I guess I forget you can buy a year subscription whenever. I wonder how much that costs in Venezuela? At least when MS Groove shut down they refunded me, but I was still only on the monthly plan.

[Taf the Ghost]

Question: does anyone but the government in Venezuela have the USDs to even buy Adobe products there? Their currency had already passed the "WoW gold is worth more" point a while ago, so the logical assumption would be most would pirate it anyway?

[thorhammerz]

9 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Their currency had already passed the "WoW gold is worth more" point a while ago

As funny as it is sad.

[spartaman64]

53 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Well, I mean I wouldn't get too mad at Adobe. They are just following the current law. But sucks for editors and creators in Venezuela... 

yep they are just following the law but not giving refunds is a shitty thing to do. imagine when airlines grounded 737 flights they didnt give people refunds on their tickets and said they are just following the law 

 

edit: i almost forgot to say this

Hotel? Trivago

[williamcll]

Wait, people BUY adobe products?

[yolosnail]

This is why I'll be using CS6 for the rest of time.

 

The only feature I really miss from CC is sync by audio in Premiere, every other feature I don't really think is worth it, especially for the amount they want per month!

 

 

[realpetertdm]

I know Adobe's just following regulations but man Adobe fucking sucks. No refunds?

 

Also I hate the subscription system 

[ARikozuM]

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

This is why I like to actually OWN things...

Up until they argue that you don't own your software licenses. 

[MoonSpot]

29 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Up until they argue that you don't own your software licenses. 

So...You're telling me that Dizzknee doesn't own SterWerz despite buying it and we can get the creator Jerge Luckputz to fix it?

 

stop making anime guirls cry and fix sterwerz

 

....

OT:  I think it would be interesting to find out if adobe has even been accepting Venezuelan currency for the last year at all; hell the last 4 or so years I wouldn't have even entertained it.  If not, and those people paid in another currency, how can they not refund them the delta through similar means in which they paid in (assuming they had to circumvent their gov to pay and collect in the 1st place)?

 

[elfensky]

21 hours ago, JZStudios said:

just find a cheaper alternative like Affinity, which a bunch of people have freely switched to and say it has a bunch of features they've been asking for years from Adobe. $50 and you own it for life, including updates. At this point pretty much everything reads and writes the Adobe formats too, so compatibility isn't even an issue. They have alternatives for Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator

I've never heard of Affinity, but with my Creative Cloud running out next year as I graduate, I might just pick these up. They look decent af. Fuck Adobe and the dead horse they keep beating and ignoring. I thought I'd pirate CC, but why would I even bother given this alternative seems way better.

[JZStudios]

6 hours ago, elfensky said:

I've never heard of Affinity, but with my Creative Cloud running out next year as I graduate, I might just pick these up. They look decent af. Fuck Adobe and the dead horse they keep beating and ignoring. I thought I'd pirate CC, but why would I even bother given this alternative seems way better.

I haven't personally tried it, because I don't really need anything that extensive for 364 days of the year, but looking up videos and other reviews, people seem pretty happy with it for only $50, and it gets updates. I think it also supports all the brushes and stuff.

[thefrecklepuny]

2 hours ago, JZStudios said:

I haven't personally tried it, because I don't really need anything that extensive for 364 days of the year, but looking up videos and other reviews, people seem pretty happy with it for only $50, and it gets updates. I think it also supports all the brushes and stuff.

I have the full Affinity range: Designer, Photo and Publisher. They are worth the cash deffinately and recieve pretty regular updates. At £48 per app, you can't go far wrong. Sure they are playing catch up to Adobe in terms of features. However, new features such as auto trace in Designer are in the pipeline.

 

Having used Adobe CS in the past, I jumped ship to Corel who are now emulating Adobe's subscription practices. Dumped Corel for Serif's Affinity range.

[ACEHACK]

14 hours ago, elfensky said:

I've never heard of Affinity, but with my Creative Cloud running out next year as I graduate, I might just pick these up. They look decent af. Fuck Adobe and the dead horse they keep beating and ignoring. I thought I'd pirate CC, but why would I even bother given this alternative seems way better.

i have the affinity suite. affinity has a great software but there are a lot of features that are missing. for example while you can import photoshop brushes you cant with patterns and gradients and most plugins dont work.  mostly due to photo not having 3d mode. for design it doesnt support dxf files nor does it raster to vector convert, and a bunch of other shit i cant remember.its a great product and given time all the features will be developed so definitely grab it. hope this helps.

 

[Spotty]

- Thread Cleaned & Locked -

What could have been an interesting discussion on the merits and downsides of software as a service & subscription models has unfortunately been ruined by people insisting on arguing about politics.