What a second. If Adobe has a page with downloads and serials that is not pirating. They are offering it for free. It's not like the software and serials are on a warez or torrent site.

Kona: It might seem like it. But it's supposed to be only for those who already posses a legitimate license for the product.

Kona...the downloads and serials are 'supposed to be' for existing customers/owners of these products to access to reinstall if necessary.

The intent is 'apparently' NOT to be for anyone looking for a freebie.

The fact they appear to have left the links publicly accessible is possibly an error ON THEIR PART so, until proven otherwise we are NOT going to be party to increasing the magnitude of their apparent mistake.

If and only if FORMAL declaration is made [by Adobe] that these links and serials are available to anyone who wants them...aka 'free' then we can allow links.

Theft is a provable offence whether the door was locked..or not....

no, the real world analogy would be the pick-your-own-farms where you leave the money in a box.

but hey, download some old copy of Photoshop there. it's not as morally wrong as stealing some old lady's purse. it is still theft though, so drop the hypocrisy and stay quiet.

i don't really think it's an error. i think they value the convenience of their existing customers higher than the "loss" (there probably is none). i don't think there are that many individuals that run paid versions of CS 2, rather larger organisations or companies with multiple licences for old pcs/macs that do not need an upgrade.

not every software company does provide downloads for old purchased versions. but this is one more reason why Adobe products are worth their money.

Could it be for the notoriety? Adobe is not exactly known for its altruism. It still claims nearly full price for older programs, a gimmick to tease existing owners of their software and a come on for new buyers. Many are struggling with this economy including big business. Adobe might be feeling the pinch too and needs to increase sales to keep the profits coming in and the company afloat. It could be a host of different reasons. But I bet its popularity won't be lost on the boss. Besides.....CS2 is so yesteryear. There are much better proggies out there now. What better way to unload stuff.

Moshi's probably right.....however there's always an isse re determining potential/actual loss due to an action...as the action itself destroys all oportunity for comparitive result.

Same thing occurs when people claim nearby multi-unit developments adversely affect their property values.  You cannot test/prove it without instant 'magic', ie. instantaneous before-and-after auctions...

come on ... why exactly is Adobe "evil"?

most software companies that sell older versions do not sell them at junk prices. how else would they sell their new versions? CS7 is an improvement over CS6 for example, but not an improvement that would be worth hundreds of dollars.

Adobe donates code to open source projects.

Adobe does release it's own free and/or open source software. Project Rome for example. a pretty cool DTP solution that i still use (you can still find a download link the Mac version at Softpedia, being an Air app it should run on pcs as well). or Source Code Pro for example, which is my favorite font for coding. while Consolas is really good, i like the brackets in Source Code Pro better. (yes, i care about such things.)

Adobe donates software to charities.

I got my Photoshop Elements 2 [which I still use] bundled with a video card.  [good enough for me as my weapon of choice is only PSP6]...

If I ever master those old proggies I'll think about updating....

PSP6 ?

give Sumopaint a try then. it is free and runs in a browser window. it's pretty awesome actually, even has layer styles.

If it's 64bit it might be worth it....the only issue I have with PSP6 is it's 32bit and I can hit its ram limit - even with LMA aware.

nah, it's a flash app. so likely the desktop version requires Air (means 32-bit).

but Paint.NET is 64-bit, free and likely more powerful than PSP6.

I started out with Paint.net. It was fine until I discovered Photoshop. I still have it in fact. There are some tuts on the Paint.net website that I haven't found on any of the Photoshop sites for tuts.....not yet at least. Sometimes for nostalgia I'll open it up and play. Lets nor forget the Gimp. That one is pretty good.

The main thing is actually knowing your way around a proggy....and I know my way around psp...though still finding better ways to do stuff...after a decade or so....

About the only thing I use PE for is such stuff as putting text into an arc ...the rest in graphics/manip is via PSP6...

A multi-layered 4096x4096 res bitmap can hit the mem limit...so that and curving text is the only deficiencies the old PSP has...[for me]...

I noticed on majorgeeks a few minutes ago that they're promoting CS2 as an Adobe giveaway

I also noticed [courtesy of majorgeeks] that over at Adobe the links to those 'free' products are still live.

Hmmm, me thinks somebody at Adobe is either bending the truth or telling lies

There's a logical explanation to all this.... it's just that Adobe's not 'fessing' up to what that is.

In the meantime, mrs s has PSP 8 10, 11 and 12 to choose from... and Photoshop Elements 5.