Subscription and cloud fears

[dovi]

1) The dealer will get you hooked and jack up the price. They are in business to make money and the introductory offer is intentionally sweet. How will they maximize profits?

2)The dealer keeps your active credit card info. Some have had security issues and have been successfully hacked.

3) Clouds hand data over to a third party that can do what ever they want with the data and let you know later, maybe.


Am I being too skeptical?

 

[Bill Clark]

I don't use the cloud.

We have had enough rain this year in Minnesota. About 12" above normal, what ever normal is any more.

I use cs4 and it works just fine for me.

I have been thinking of getting a new wi fi router, my current one is in its 8th year, with the new router I can have my own cloud.

 

[btgc]

One should really not to care for his data to pass it to the cloud. It's like keeping wallet on the window sill. It's just matter of time. There's no question if it happens, only when?

 

[Godfrey]

1) The dealer will get you hooked and jack up the price. They are in business to make money and the introductory offer is intentionally sweet. How will they maximize profits?

2)The dealer keeps your active credit card info. Some have had security issues and have been successfully hacked.

3) Clouds hand data over to a third party that can do what ever they want with the data and let you know later, maybe.


Am I being too skeptical?

1) could happen. don't sign a contract. keep your options open. if the price goes up, unsubscribe and do something else.

2) nothing you do financially in the world today other than cash transactions with a local store is any different. If you're going to worry about this, you'll never sleep again. Protect yourself as best possible and let it go.

3) read and understand the terms of service before signing up to use a service. if they breach them, you take them to court.

I use cloud services for a lot of things, have been for at least a decade, although not for my photography at the moment. They work very well. I've never had my credit card stolen, an attempt on my identity for theft, nor have I ever had an instance where the company offering the service sold my data to a third party without my consent.

I'm not paranoid, and I subscribe to the aphorism, "Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you." I assume that and take pains to inform myself of what is going on before I commit to using services. It works.

Sensible precaution and being informed has always worked for me.

G

 

[willie_901]

1- The dealer is rewarded by Wall Street for growth in revenue and profits. The dealer has competition. Of course prices will rise over time. For example, film dealers are notorious for constantly increasing prices. But the dealer does not have unilateral power to charge whatever they feel like. Loosing customers eventually reduces the dealer's rewards. It creates a strong negative feedback loop. Historically one of the dealer's most popular items for photographers has actually decreased in price.

2. This is a serious problem with all credit/debit card purchases. Dealers on every street corner are vulnerable to this issue. Some dealer's invest more than others in security. Some dealer's organizations are very inefficient and fragmented... which makes them vulnerable. The US credit/debit card companies in the US refuse to give the dealer's customers more secure options. The question is: did the dealer learn their lesson? Since we have no concrete information about the dealer 's response to minimize future risk, the odds are 50:50 the dealer is more secure than before. We just don't know. Keep in mind we don't know anything about other dealers' security either. Of course dealers who give their goods away don't have this problem.

3. Keep in mind you must use the Cloud for only two things. 1. You must download all software from the Cloud. Then the software resides entirely on your computer. 2. You must connect to the Cloud 12 times a year. Here are the facts:

"Because your Creative Suite applications are installed directly on your computer, you will not need an ongoing Internet connection to use them on a daily basis. However, you will need to be online when you install and license your software, and at least once every 30 days thereafter. The software will alert you when you need to connect to the Internet for a license status check." The license status check has a 7 day grace period. So you just need to check in once every 30 days.


Otherwise your computer doesn't even have to be connected to the internet. Updates happen about every 45 days . So this means you must be connected to the Cloud for about 10 to 15 minutes 12 times a year to download updates and refresh your licenses.

There is absolutely no mandate or reason to store a single photograph in the Cloud. No one can steal your work from the Cloud if it isn't in the Cloud.

And, if you register the copyrights for your work, the maximum penalty per registered photograph is $250K. So let's be skeptical and assume the dealer will steal our photos, and our photos are registered. If each customer received just 10% of the maximum penalty for every photo the dealer stole, the dealer dies. Speaking for myself, my photos are not worth $25K each no matter how wonderful I think they are. I'm skeptical the dealer is stupid enough to steal them.

No doubt this thread will be hijacked to express disgust and dismay over the subscription licensing model.

Decisions about subscription vs. perpetual licensing are always correct. There is no no right or wrong answer. Each photographer gets to decide for themselves.

 

[MaxElmar]

I see Adobe updated Lightroom CC so it is still operable after the subscription lapses. The "Develop" and "Map" tabs are no longer functional but the rest (Library functions/Export/Printing) still works. A vast improvement in my book. So your old work is still accessible and exportable.

Of course, this was always true of the stand-alone version....

Still looking at alternatives, but this is a bit better.

 

[Lauffray]

What are we talking about exactly here ?

 

[MaxElmar]

Well. mostly we're talking about the pros and cons of Adobe switching to a subscription model, instead of a perpetual license.

Adobe Lightroom is available (for now) in either flavor. A major "con" of the subscription model version was that it became completely inoperable if the subscription lapsed. Adobe has partially addressed that, ensuring at least access to one's work after the subscription lapsed. It's a very modest step in the right direction for the subscription model.

It won't dispel a lot of emotional responses and misinformation found in this thread, but at least it's factual. I myself, have been looking for alternatives to Adobe for several reasons, not the least of which is the move to the subscription model. And the massive effective price increase.