Adobe Backpedals on Free CS2 Offering

By Paul Thomson :: 10:29 AM

Nope – CS2 isn’t free. At least not legally. That’s Adobe’s line this morning, after yesterday’s shutdown of the CS2 activation servers led to a free-for-all download frenzy of the nearly 8-year-old software package.

Word quickly spread, on our site and across the tech news world, yesterday morning about the seemingly uncharacteristic generosity of Adobe in making Creative Suite 2 available for free.

An Adobe representative, Dov Isaacs, logged on to Adobe’s support forum later in the day and clarified that the downloads and serial numbers they posted were intended only for users who have already acquired CS2 legally, but can no longer activate it.

At this point, the barn door has been open for way too long, and nothing Adobe tries to do will really close it. License keys have been cropping up across the web, and users have flocked to Adobe’s site to download the software.

Legally, however, you do need a license key to use it. And from a hardware standpoint, the old version will have difficulty running on most of today’s modern systems.