# End of Adobe subscription software in Venezuela



## LRList001 (Oct 8, 2019)

I see US sanctions have resulted in the ending of subscription model software from Adobe in Venezuela.

"Users have until October 28 to download content, after which accounts will be deactivated, Adobe said. "  (BBC news)

Can happen any time to any country and will apply to all US subscription licence software, not just Adobe I guess.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 10, 2019)

I think it will be interesting to see how this gets implemented technically with respect to Classic.

Will Adobe, for example, remove the ability to run lightroom at all, or will it fall back into the much publicized but little confirmed mode of allowing most features except develop?

Or will Lightroom become completely non-functional, and if you have not (for example) exported everything s tiff (etc) you cannot access them at all?

I also think it will be interesting to see how precise their aim is, can they still allow legal us residents in Venezuela (say embassy or other government staff) to run while removing it from citizens, what about people who bought originally in Venezuela but moved and are now legally residents of another country.

I think it is sad this is happening, but I am fascinated by what we might learn about how Adobe's license enforcement mechanisms actually work.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 11, 2019)

I don't have firm verification, but I imagine they don't have a "venezuela switch" in LR's code, so it would just revert to the limited mode. I've tested that mode myself and it falls back to that at the end of a subscription, end of a trial, etc.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 11, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I don't have firm verification, but I imagine they don't have a "venezuela switch" in LR's code, so it would just revert to the limited mode. I've tested that mode myself and it falls back to that at the end of a subscription, end of a trial, etc.



My _impression_ though is that mode requires that it still be able to reach the adobe servers.  I keep hearing of others who get into a situation where they are required to log in to just run the program, but cannot log in, and so can't run the program. It is always hard to pin these down, so I never quite know whether to take them seriously or not.

I keep meaning to install on a laptop and lock it away from a few months without internet access and see what happens, but never have. 

But if adobe cuts off access to their servers to the entire country -- what happens?  

(Note I have no idea if that's their plan; I have not heard anything about how they plan to do whatever they do).


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## Hal P Anderson (Oct 11, 2019)

I cancelled my subscription several months ago, waiting to get re-enthused about photography. I just unplugged my internet connection and launched Lightroom. It came up with an error window telling me that it couldn't verify my subscription status, then a screen telling me that my subscription had ended. I closed that and was able to run Lightroom normally, except of course that I couldn't use the Develop module. I evidently don't need internet access to run a crippled Lightroom, and I figure the same will be the case for the folks in Venezuela.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 11, 2019)

Hal, was your computer plugged in during that time?

The problem with these tests is that adobe has many (like dozen or two) processes running all the time in background even when you are not using it, and they are always communicating with the Adobe servers.  So (this is a guess) they could be validating your status all the time, even if you are using any Adobe product, so when you come back to use it, it knows your subscription expired.  So by the time you unplugged, it already knew what it needed to know.  Again, hypothesizing.  But would it do the same thing if your computer was in a closet since BEFORE you cancelled your subscription, and you then tried this?

There are just so many scenarios.  For example, your computer knows the difference in the internet being disconnected, and being connected but not being able to reach adobe, and yet different from being able to reach adobe and having an invalid ID, and being able to reach adobe but having an expired ID.  Do all of these end with the same behavior?

And what's going to happen in Venezuela?   Will the internet connection be severed so they cannot talk to the servers at all (based on IP country of origin)?  Is it legal for Adobe to allow them to log in and THEN determine they are not able to access it?

I just find the technical issues of all this fascinating, and wonder if Adobe has tested them all.  Sad that it's happening, but I hope we learn a lot more.


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## Hal P Anderson (Oct 11, 2019)

All those are good questions. I just thought I'd add a data point to the mix. I figured that if Adobe closes down their Venezuelan servers, that would be probably equivalent to disconnecting from the Web. That, of course, is highly hypothetical.

Normally when I launch Lightroom, I get a popup offering to rent me the Photography Plan or the Everything plan, with buttons to go do those things. I can just close it and use the app in crippled mode. Interestingly, that popup takes a long time to come up, thus making the app less pleasurable to use.


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## MarkNicholas (Oct 12, 2019)

I wonder what would happen if you had taken out a subscription in Venezuela and then moved to say the US. Would the software be validated ? If so then for those still in Venezuela they could (if it was convenient) presumably just pop over the border into another country every month and fire up Lightroom to validate ?


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 12, 2019)

Interesting, yes, they'd need to be able to sign in to their Adobe ID to run in limited mode, although I guess they'd have already signed in. Most people would simply use a VPN to fake their country instead of border hopping, I suspect!!


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## clee01l (Oct 12, 2019)

So, toilet paper is not the only thing in short supply in Venezuela. 

I think the only thing that has happened is that the Venezuelan located license holders have been suspended. Any US resident holding a valid Adobe License can still run LR from any country in the world. This would include US Embassy, Press, visiting US citizens even naturalized Venezuelans.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 12, 2019)

So I did an experiment as well.  I signed out on a laptop, disconnected it from the internet and rebooted.  Started lightroom - no prompts (not even one to sign in, interestingly).

I advanced the date to Dec 2019, started lightroom - no prompts, worked fine (and could get to develop).   Rebooted just to see, same result (still disconnected). 

I disconnected from the internet and reconnected to my network (to see if the connection itself mattered as opposed to reachability) - same result.  CC desktop, if run, claimed it could not connect, but Lightroom started and ran.

I then changed to Dec 2020 and rebooted, still no connection, and now Lightroom would not run, it complained "we can't verify your subscription status" and offered me only "try again" and "quit".  I could not run lightroom, no matter what I tried.

So I put the date back, put the internet back, and tried again -- same error.  Turns out windows cached the connection status, and I had to do a IPCONFIG/FLUSHDNS to get Adobe back (note a reboot would have worked).  Now Lightroom ran, in full feature mode.  This has nothing to do with adobe I just mention it in case anyone is trying to recreate these tests on windows.

BUT... I'm still not logged in, which I think is a bit bizarre -- I just ran CC Desktop and it is at a login prompt.

Anyway... It definitely appears to me that you must, forever and ever, be able to connect to the Adobe servers in order to run Lightroom, period.  If Adobe is hit by an asteroid (or an executive order, or your own country cuts off adobe's internet access) that prevents you from contacting their servers, Lightroom just does not work, in limited more or otherwise.

Thus Adobe's promise that you can access it in limited mode is dependent on internet connectivity, access to their servers, and their own continuing support of a policy of limited use, since the default in lightroom is no access at all (after being cut off for a period).


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 12, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Interesting, yes, they'd need to be able to sign in to their Adobe ID to run in limited mode, although I guess they'd have already signed in. Most people would simply use a VPN to fake their country instead of border hopping, I suspect!!


I wonder, or does it go by your profile?   I just looked and I do not see an address or country in my profile, though presumably it remembered the region selected on the site when I signed up .  I think it may be interesting to know how they figure this out.  As you mention, VPN's (and corporate networks) make location a bit flexible.

You know, people think about this in terms of the US executive order, but there are lots of signs of internet fragmentation in the wind, with countries censoring their own internet access, or for portions of their population, striking deals to limit content or access.   As the NBA over here has found out, it becomes increasingly hard to be in the good graces of all sides at once.  I wonder if one day we will stop taking for granted that being on the internet means being able to reach, and be reached by, everyone.  I hope it doesn't, but it may become the "internets".


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## PhilBurton (Oct 13, 2019)

LRList001 said:


> I see US sanctions have resulted in the ending of subscription model software from Adobe in Venezuela.
> 
> "Users have until October 28 to download content, after which accounts will be deactivated, Adobe said. "  (BBC news)
> 
> Can happen any time to any country and will apply to all US subscription licence software, not just Adobe I guess.


And given Trump's total irrationality, this sort of cutoff probably will happen to other countries.  Or other countries, China comes to mind, might block access to Adobe servers.

Phil Burton


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 14, 2019)

I have reached out to an Adobe contact to see if I can find out any more about expected behaviour in this kind of scenario.


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## Zenon (Oct 14, 2019)

Hal P Anderson said:


> I cancelled my subscription several months ago, waiting to get re-enthused about photography. I just unplugged my internet connection and launched Lightroom. It came up with an error window telling me that it couldn't verify my subscription status, then a screen telling me that my subscription had ended. I closed that and was able to run Lightroom normally, except of course that I couldn't use the Develop module. I evidently don't need internet access to run a crippled Lightroom, and I figure the same will be the case for the folks in Venezuela.



I hate those lulls. Had a bit of one this summer so I just had to buy a new camera.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 14, 2019)

Hal P Anderson said:


> I cancelled my subscription several months ago, waiting to get re-enthused about photography. I just unplugged my internet connection and launched Lightroom. It came up with an error window telling me that it couldn't verify my subscription status. then a screen telling me that my subscription had ended.


And you didn't have access when it verified you as ending?   Like a switch to wifi you didn't expect?   My attempt didn't morph into "ended", but (a) I was cheating and time did not really pass, who knows if that really matters, and (b) I did not wait very long, I tried getting around it then reverted to current.

I'll be curious what Adobe thinks the intended behavior is.  I think it's relevant to a lot of scenarios, including travel.  I also recall they changed underlying licensing enforcement software at least once since the CC came into being, so it's always worth retrying such things periodically to help identify bugs in a vendor's implementation of their intent.


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## Hal P Anderson (Oct 14, 2019)

Yep, no WiFi on this machine. When my subscription first ended, they put up a message box telling me that that was the last time I'd be able to run LR, and I still had access to Develop. That behaviour lasted for two or three weeks, and then I started getting a different box that told me my subscription had ended, and indeed, I couldn't use Develop. Now I get a third box that lets me push a button to renew.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 14, 2019)

Hal P Anderson said:


> Yep, no WiFi on this machine. When my subscription first ended, they put up a message box telling me that that was the last time I'd be able to run LR, and I still had access to Develop.


That may be a significant part of the story, in that you already had a chance to contact the servers once and they said "expired", as opposed to it expiring (or being terminated) while you were disconnected.  In the former it probably saved a status indication of "expired" in the later it is in a "active but cannot contact server" state which might (or might not) be different.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 16, 2019)

I've had confirmation - Adobe ID's will still log in, so Residual mode will still work.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 16, 2019)

A good solution.  Thanks.

So that does seem to imply that access to the servers is necessary for access to lightroom (after some period of time).  Thus someone travelling with no internet access for a long time would just lose access.  Rare case and getting more rare where you cannot get any access -- all it would take is a cell phone (tethered) login every 30 days (or whatever). 

Or of course a complete failure of Adobe the company, I guess.  But 99.999% of the people then would have plenty of time to export before they needed to log in again, unless they are in a coma or never hear any news for 30 days.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 16, 2019)

If you'd signed in before you travel, even if your sub had expired, you'd still have residual mode because you'd already be logged in. You only need to sign in every 30 days for sub access.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Oct 16, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> If you'd signed in before you travel, even if your sub had expired, you'd still have residual mode because you'd already be logged in. You only need to sign in every 30 days for sub access.



Right.  That's my point, you would need to be travelling continually away from ANY internet access for a very long time to have it time out and need to check in.   While it's possible someone might do that, with tethered cell phone data the number of people who cannot at least log in once every 30 days is getting pretty darn rare.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 28, 2019)

Here's the latest: Adobe compliance with U.S. Executive Order | Venezuela


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## LRList001 (Oct 31, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Here's the latest: Adobe compliance with U.S. Executive Order | Venezuela



Well that is good news.  (If the link gets lost in the future, in summary it says that subscription services are being restored under a special permission from the US Gov for Adobe (and presumably other businesses can apply for a similar exemption).)


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