For Shame Adobe, For Shame
I have recently been looking into pricing of the Adobe CC suite for the college I lecture at. They are primarily interested in using tools like Light Room and Photoshop, Acrobat, InDesign, and to a lesser extent possibly even DreamWeaver.
Adobe, like all good commercial software vendors, do offer significant price reductions to students and faculty which, at least on the surface, make the purchase of a Abode CC subscription seem like a no brainer. Students and lecturers can get a full programme subscription for $20 per month, compared to the standard $50 per month, something like a 60% discount.
Sadly, this where the shame bit comes in. Adobe's lack of support for students and educators in developing markets with struggling economies such as ours is, in my opinion, shameful.
Firstly, that 60% discount pricing is considered an Introductory offer, and is only valid for the first year. Renew your sub for a second year and you'll be paying whatever the standard price is at that time. This note is conveniently tucked away in the terms that pretty much no-one ever looks at.
And secondly, and the point that's irritating me the most, is the fact that Adobe's Student/Educator discount pricing is not available in South Africa (and many other countries, as I understand it.) Or, technically they do call it a "Subscription Education Named License 1 User" offer, but the price is exactly the same as the standard pricing for the same thing.
You can't apply for Student/Lecturer discounts via the online Abobe store here in SA, and when you try to you are redirected to a list of local resellers. Contacting one of these resellers I was told that it would cost me R9081 for a 1-year Education based subscription to Adobe CC. At current exchange rates, at the standard $49.99/month for a year, I'd get exactly the same product without having to jump through all the proof of eligibility hoops, for R9071. (The value of a R10k annual subscription cost for continued access to your software is worthy of a discussion in its' own right too.)
So where exactly is my discount? Or any point at all in me making an effort to apply for Educator licensing in the first place?
Not that I'm condoning software piracy in any way at all, but I guarantee that there's at least one person, probably many people, in my college class of young students that would be able to assist us in securing this software for a lot less than the asking price.
