Remember how Creative Cloud was supposed to make life easier for Adobe users? Adobe has had to withdraw access to some old apps that use third-party bits of code. Presumably, Adobe no longer had the right to distribute these elements - or would no longer pay for them.
Adobe has confirmed to us that customers can now download only the two most recent major versions of Creative Cloud applications (just the most recent one in the case of Acrobat) and it has discontinued everything else. That's quite a slap in the face for people paying £50 a month who need access to older apps.
The issue came to light after users received emails naming the specific apps they had installed on their system that were out-of-date and advising how to update them. Adobe has withdrawn the license agreement for those users which means they are now using the apps illegally. One user posting on the Adobe forum said: "We have multi-year projects. We do not change versions mid-stream in a project. Will Adobe now use the Creative Cloud app to prevent installed unauthorised versions from opening up?"
Another says "I'm now stuck with a user who can no longer work on a project because it was done with InDesign CC2015. A little bit of warning would have been nice regarding this. Not every company can upgrade their software and documents within 24 hours."
While there are myriad benefits to subscription software, the situation again highlights that the user has little comback in a situation like this. The cull includes apps that run on older versions of the Windows OS in particular - Windows 10 is perhaps rightly being adopted as the only supported version of Windows, but the whole point of the subscription model is that people have access to everything.
The sorry tale could centre around a current court dispute with Dolby where the purveyors of sound accuse the software maker of copyright infringement - essentially it alleges that Adobe is not paying its dues in court documents.
In a statement, Adobe commented on the change and predictably framed the change as a positive: "This change enables us to develop the features and functionality most requested by customers and ensure peak performance across all Creative Cloud apps and services. We always encourage our customers to use the latest version of Creative Cloud to have access to the latest features, optimal performance, security updates and other benefits."