Seriously. All I've seen today is people coming online and Pitching a Bitch About something to do with Poser. I mean, I think I understand most of it, but it's not like this has all happen out of the clear blue sky. We've known it was going to happen for at least two months now!

I'm sorry if the language is offensive, but it's mild considering some of the things I DIDN'T say. :(

I think a lot of people didn't know. I mean, most customers probably don't hang out here. And it's easy to ignore commercial emails.

Okay, fine, but they seemed to know enough to come here and complain. And they didn't seem to want advice about how to solve their problem. They just wanted to rant and rave.

The guy who threatened a lawsuit was a piece of work. I think the other guy got some blowback because of the first guy. The second guy was frustrated, but he had tried to solve the problem and wasn't really that rude until people started getting in his face.

The wonderful thing about the internet is that if you're having a bad day, you're bound to find somebody just as cranky as you are when you complain about something.

Agree with you, EClark1894. Couldn't help but wonder if Mr Lawsuit was some kind of planted troll, BTW.

I, for one, am glad that Poser is now in the hands of Bondware -- a company that obviously and genuinely cares about Poser and its customers.

These transitional bugs are to be expected and, frankly, I'm not so sure that SM left things in the best of shape for Bondware to absorb.

For now, I am contentedly working with PP 2014 (the non-game dev edition) and will stay there until Rendo's own Poser version appears and is debugged. But I am sincerely looking forward to it.

/me is just quietly waiting for the complaints to die down before I whip out the credit card...

galaxiefilm posted at 7:44PM Mon, 30 September 2019 - #4365067

I, for one, am glad that Poser is now in the hands of Bondware -- a company that obviously and genuinely cares about Poser and its customers.

I agree.

These transitional bugs are to be expected and, frankly, I'm not so sure that SM left things in the best of shape for Bondware to absorb.

Doubly agree. Smith Micro left it to rot for far too long. Rendo has its work cut out for them.

For now, I am contentedly working with PP 2014 (the non-game dev edition) and will stay there until Rendo's own Poser version appears and is debugged. But I am sincerely looking forward to it.

Same-same, though I'm hanging out in DS land, but I'd prefer to always have an alternative hanging around (and my ancient copy of Poser 7 is way too long in the tooth, so I'm not even bothering with an install of it.)

Thanks, Penguinisto!

What follows is just my opinion and is what works for me.

I have DS but am not a fan of its interface. Have been a happy Poser user since v4 in 1999 and added the Pro-Pack not long after that. Stayed there until I upgraded my workstation in 2008 and then bought Poser 7.

Once Poser was in Smith-Micro's hands, I purposely stayed one version behind since each new edition seemed to be a beta on first appearance. Never felt a need to have the latest unless there was a feature I just had to have.

But when 11 came out, I was leery because of SM's having let the Poser development team go.

In a different thread a few weeks back, someone stated that DAZ has the best content. I disagree. The best overall content is/was found at Rendo, Hivewire, and (once upon a time) at RuntimeDNA (which, yes, I know was absorbed by DAZ). I do agree that DAZ has the best human figures. But, let's face it, their business strategy seems to really be to just make slight improvements on those figures and then resell them again & again to their customers.

Again, this is just my opinion, but if I had to chose between trusting Smith-Mirco or DAZ, I would still have chosen SM, warts & all. They always did satisfactory follow-through with me whenever I had an issue or question--though I admit it sometimes took a day or a few.

On the other hand, if you want to talk about letting a program truly rot, take a good look at DAZ' treatment of CARRARA and HEXAGON. I can't help but believe that the purpose of DAZ' acquisition of those splendid programs seemed mainly to be to take them off the market so no one else (like SM) could get their mitts on them. I wish I was wrong about that--but actions speak louder than words now, don't they?

Let's not forget that DAZ started as an offshoot of Zygote to exclusively service the Poser market in the first place.

I'm confident that Bondware will take Poser to new heights. There will be bumps along the road, for sure--but it will be worth it in the end.

Gotta agree on Cararra and Bryce... They were originally bought to hopefully become a complimentary suite of tools (Hex - then Carrara - for modeling, Bryce as a landscaping and world-building tool, and DS to tie it all together). Hexagon was never really much more than a stop-gap of sorts (and TBH, it sucked mud even back in the day.) DS itself was originally started because Poser 5, well, sucked. Badly. Curious Labs was on the ropes at the time, and nobody knew if it would even survive the year from P5's release.

As far as who has the best content? My answer is, it depends. I also find that with SubD, collision detection, morph transfers, geografting, and much more, I can resurrect even the positively ancient stuff and breathe new life into it. Aiko 3 came out waaaaaaay back when, but I can use it now without mesh crinkling when I bend bits of it. Same with NearMe. Same with lots of stuff - especially props that get 'reskinned' with shaders to bring them to new life - stuff that would normally look like crap with their ancient plasticized P4/PP textures can now look like they were meshed-up a week ago, and fit in even with the latest/greatest.

And... get this: I managed to convert-up a positively archaeological Vicky 3 custom skin texture (a Momcat/Firebirdz thing), and hung it on the latest G8, complete with stuff it never had, like Subsurface Scattering. I don't think even the original vendors could have imagined such things way back in 2004 or so when the thing first came out.

BUT - Poser is now coming out with stuff (Ero's PE, LaFemme, etc) that is starting to diverge enough that it won't just work in DS, so I want to see what I can do on that side of the house as well.

Also, It's been awhile... I want to see what Poser can actually do these days.

Finally, a bit of rationale: I'm an old bastard. I'm actually 3 years older than I'm supposed to be. My days of raising hell over which application can do what has pretty much ended long ago. I just sit back and play with pixels nowadays.

I'm a bit baffled why everybody blames Renderosity. It was Smith Micro dropping support on their own software...
(And yes, I consider that a rude move from their side...)

Why am I thinking of puppies and dogs being launched from a trebuchet?

prixat posted at 8:48AM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365106

Why am I thinking of puppies and dogs being launched from a trebuchet?

NOOOOOO the tiny furries!

samsiahaija posted at 7:13AM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365091

I'm a bit baffled why everybody blames Renderosity. It was Smith Micro dropping support on their own software...
(And yes, I consider that a rude move from their side...)

Most folks slinging the blame hadn't taken the time to sit down and figure stuff out.

prixat posted at 7:14AM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365106

Why am I thinking of puppies and dogs being launched from a trebuchet?

click-click

PULL!

(evil grin)

samsiahaija posted at 1:02PM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365091

I'm a bit baffled why everybody blames Renderosity. It was Smith Micro dropping support on their own software...
(And yes, I consider that a rude move from their side...)

Well, Bondware did buy the software, and they could have cloned the license server in the deal. For some reason, they chose not to. If they had maintained the old license server, upgrading would have been optional or could have happened over an extended period of time, and a lot less people would be cranky. Let's face it, from a software point of view, Poser is a clusterf*ck. It's all kinds of stuff stuck together with poor interoperability. Bondware has made some small moves to improve this in their release- but forcing their improvements on the customer base was not friendly, and we lost some things too. What Bondware really bought was the customer base, and the software needs a major overhaul. But treating the customer base like a commodity is pretty rude. I paid for Poser and intend to get what good I can out of it, but even as a new user I'm already on the move to Blender. Bondware's treatment of licensing issues doesn't inspire trust.

For the those not in the USA. We have do have a National Pitch a Bitch day. It generally occurs the first Tuesday of the Month in November, every four years.

Well, for my contribution to National Pitch A Bitch Day, I just installed Poser 11.2 and it....

went off without a hitch. I feel let-down cause I don't get to complain :P LOL

Laurie

LaurieA posted at 7:25PM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365310

Well, for my contribution to National Pitch A Bitch Day, I just installed Poser 11.2 and it....

went off without a hitch. I feel let-down cause I don't get to complain :P LOL

Laurie

I know right!? I can't speak for the rest of the world but it's every American's right to complain. I think it's a law!

LaurieA posted at 10:21PM Tue, 01 October 2019 - #4365310

Well, for my contribution to National Pitch A Bitch Day, I just installed Poser 11.2 and it....

went off without a hitch. I feel let-down cause I don't get to complain :P LOL

Laurie

Complaining about not being able to complain is so meta....

Those poor little doggies. :...(

If trebuchets are used for the dogs, then I guess felines are flung from...catapults.

Uh, I'll just get my coat.

Sincerely,

Bill

LaurieA posted at 11:16AM Wed, 02 October 2019 - #4365310

Well, for my contribution to National Pitch A Bitch Day, I just installed Poser 11.2 and it....

went off without a hitch. I feel let-down cause I don't get to complain :P LOL

Laurie

HOW DARE THEY deliver you a functioning program?

@HKHan99 That they did not clone the server has to do with the fact that Smith Micro is still using that server to maintain the MoHo Program which has had the activation feature for the last three versions. You can't have two servers have the same address and expect the results to work.

Richard60 posted at 9:05PM Wed, 02 October 2019 - #4365510

@HKHan99 That they did not clone the server has to do with the fact that Smith Micro is still using that server to maintain the MoHo Program which has had the activation feature for the last three versions. You can't have two servers have the same address and expect the results to work.

Then cloning only the Poser section, giving it a different address, and giving existing users a patch to change the phone home address would have worked. Or a patch so that phoning home was no longer necessary. Changing the license server didn't have to be connected to a change in the program's content and capability.

If making it so that phoning home was no longer an option, you don't believe they would have thought of that or tried it?

I suppose the point is moot now but why did they force PP2014GD to phone home in the first place? It wasn't subscription based, it was already validated at least once at some point. So why?

quietrob posted at 11:59AM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365614

I suppose the point is moot now but why did they force PP2014GD to phone home in the first place? It wasn't subscription based, it was already validated at least once at some point. So why?

That was Smith Micro's call, not Bondware's. I didn't even upgrade to Game Dev, and wouldn't have upgraded to Poser 11 If I had known about the phoning home issue. I don't like subscription services, and I won't be upgrading to Poser 12 if this phoning home will be an issue in the future. That said, if I knew that my software would have to phone home or stop working BEFORE I Bought IT, I wouldn't buy it. That is something for Bondware to consider going forward. I've been with Poser since version 2. I would hate for P11 to be my final Poser.

I didn't mention it but I did mean Smith Micro (SM). The question is still out there. Why did SM force fully paid-for-software to phone home for continued use?

To continue your elaboration, I agree. If Bondware forces Poser to call home even periodically, I will be forced to seek other alternatives. Fortunately I have never heard of this being an option going forward. It is done indirectly during upgrades but I've already come across one user that said he hasn't upgraded ANY of his software for years. A bad idea as now his favorite software is unusable. He's missed upgrades that have long since disappeared. I wish him the best but it is a cautionary tale for others. Upgrading is tedious but the alternative could be nothing. It is difficult to render an image with nothing.

EClark1894 posted at 1:05AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365598

If making it so that phoning home was no longer an option, you don't believe they would have thought of that or tried it?

It's absolutely an option, and I'm confident they thought of it. I think they made a poor choice. After all, Smith Micro could make your license permanent, so the technology is there. I agree with Rob about phoning home going forward. I won't be upgrading Poser if that happens- but I do expect what I have now to keep working. And frankly, wondering if it's going to happen is inhibiting me from investing in further 3rd party stuff- not that I have much budget for that, but what little I have isn't going into a well that might go dry at any moment.

Well, there is a reason why I didn't upgrade to PP2014GameDev or PP2011 ... and that reason is the activation, depending on an internet connection to a server thing. And Bondware nowadays even let's the software phone home every 28 days ... no way, sorry. On top of that there is no permanent license, just a possible longer period ... @4365415

I really do like Poser, I have Poser 5, 7, 8, PP2012 and PP2014, so yes, I do like Poser, but I don't like this.

quietrob posted at 7:36PM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365614

I suppose the point is moot now but why did they force PP2014GD to phone home in the first place? It wasn't subscription based, it was already validated at least once at some point. So why?

I believe they were somewhat spooked by the Game Dev industry, basically. Remember, PP2014GD was their first venture into trying to cater to gamers. And, we all have to admit, deserved or not, gamers have quite the reputation for hacking and ripping off software.

I believe that's where the need for DRM came from, in their minds at least.

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

the one time I came on here and bitched about something I ended up looking ignorant because the answer was right there.

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 1:32PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365967

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

^^^^^ Yes Yes Yes Yes. Also, Yes.

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 2:37PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365967

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

I don't, but ironically, if I knew the crack to kill the phone home feature I would have shared it by now.

EClark1894 posted at 3:09PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4366037

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 2:37PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365967

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

I don't, but ironically, if I knew the crack to kill the phone home feature I would have shared it by now.

Would make you an illegal user though

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 4:04PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4366047

EClark1894 posted at 3:09PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4366037

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 2:37PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365967

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

I don't, but ironically, if I knew the crack to kill the phone home feature I would have shared it by now.

Would make you an illegal user though

Not really. I paid for and bought Poser, so every thing would still be legit. The only thing it wouldn't do is phone home, so I wouldn't need to be on the internet. Kind of like having a permanent activation.

I will add this though, I don't believe in piracy, and I wouldn't have bought Poser if it were a subscription service. That's why I don't have Photoshop or Marvelous Designer.

EClark1894 posted at 10:11PM Thu, 10 October 2019 - #4366055

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 4:04PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4366047

EClark1894 posted at 3:09PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4366037

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 2:37PM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365967

Glitterati3D posted at 6:33AM Sat, 05 October 2019 - #4365921

Personally, what I see is just punishing their core base who pays for the software. They certainly aren't preventing piracy - from gamers or anyone else.

Definitely not. A simple crack would just kill the phone home feature. Piracy users are never even bothered by such things, while paying customers are.

Honestly trying to block piracy feels like a lost battle to me, sadly. Do things like the way Steam does it instead - make people want to have the original, because of ease of use, great customer service, fair prices, easier updates, etc. Steam has gone public to state they don't have a piracy problem (of course it exists, but it's such a small scale that it doesn't hurt their business)

I don't, but ironically, if I knew the crack to kill the phone home feature I would have shared it by now.

Would make you an illegal user though

Not really. I paid for and bought Poser, so every thing would still be legit. The only thing it wouldn't do is phone home, so I wouldn't need to be on the internet. Kind of like having a permanent activation.

I will add this though, I don't believe in piracy, and I wouldn't have bought Poser if it were a subscription service. That's why I don't have Photoshop or Marvelous Designer.

Well, technically you can buy a perpetual license of Marvelous Designer IF you have the funds to pony up. But I definitely hear what you're saying. I don't (and won't) rent software either.

Laurie

The other thing is this, it makes no sense to me to have a subscription service when you have a competitor giving away their software for free. I started with Poser, so I'm used to it, and I have no real reason to switch to DS. I'm willing to pay for the upgrades to buy Poser. I'm not willing to be a slave to a subscription or periodic license service forever chained to the Internet. And being a black person, there's a reason why I used that terminology.

quietrob posted at 10:52AM Fri, 11 October 2019 - #4365684

I didn't mention it but I did mean Smith Micro (SM). The question is still out there. Why did SM force fully paid-for-software to phone home for continued use?

To continue your elaboration, I agree. If Bondware forces Poser to call home even periodically, I will be forced to seek other alternatives. Fortunately I have never heard of this being an option going forward. It is done indirectly during upgrades but I've already come across one user that said he hasn't upgraded ANY of his software for years. A bad idea as now his favorite software is unusable. He's missed upgrades that have long since disappeared. I wish him the best but it is a cautionary tale for others. Upgrading is tedious but the alternative could be nothing. It is difficult to render an image with nothing.

That was the question asked by many a few months after Game Dev was released, the few months delay was because SM slipped it in and told no one, it was only after systems not connected to the Internet failed to launch that is was discovered by users. Somewhere in the history of these forums is all the complaints and lots of reasons why this was a bad idea. I think I am right in saying the Bagginsbill also suggested it was a bad idea and let's face it his knowledge of Poser and the world of 3D is up there with the best of them. Also in the history is chapter and verse as to why this was a bad idea, all ignored at first by SM and later the damage was patched up with a modified marketing statement and a few promises that have since proved to be lies. So it is a good question as to why it was introduced, sadly, we did not get a valid answer then and since the sale we never will.

What saddens me is that a few people have a short memory or are just too eager to complain without knowing the facts. None of this is the fault of Bondware, the only thing they are guilty of is taking a decent piece of software with a lot of history and more than one or two bugs with the intention of improving the said software. That fact they are being condemned for doing so by some is an absolute travesty.

hornet3d posted at 11:46AM Fri, 11 October 2019 - #4366715

What saddens me is that a few people have a short memory or are just too eager to complain without knowing the facts. None of this is the fault of Bondware, the only thing they are guilty of is taking a decent piece of software with a lot of history and more than one or two bugs with the intention of improving the said software. That fact they are being condemned for doing so by some is an absolute travesty.

Bondware now has the opportunity to improve Poser by removing the validation feature, or to keep it and rightfully inherit criticism of the feature. The users who hate the thing could, like, start a hubbub or something. A real to-do.

I was a beta tester on Game Dev and Poser 11. I bought a proper copy of Poser 11 when Bondware acquired it. I haven't loaded the software onto my graphics machine. The hassle and unpredictability and unreliability introduced by the phone-home validation make it not worth the trouble. I'm just waiting for the day when Bondware removes that feature so I can migrate from PPro14 to the current version.

Cage posted at 6:29PM Fri, 11 October 2019 - #4366782

hornet3d posted at 11:46AM Fri, 11 October 2019 - #4366715

What saddens me is that a few people have a short memory or are just too eager to complain without knowing the facts. None of this is the fault of Bondware, the only thing they are guilty of is taking a decent piece of software with a lot of history and more than one or two bugs with the intention of improving the said software. That fact they are being condemned for doing so by some is an absolute travesty.

Bondware now has the opportunity to improve Poser by removing the validation feature, or to keep it and rightfully inherit criticism of the feature. The users who hate the thing could, like, start a hubbub or something. A real to-do.

I was a beta tester on Game Dev and Poser 11. I bought a proper copy of Poser 11 when Bondware acquired it. I haven't loaded the software onto my graphics machine. The hassle and unpredictability and unreliability introduced by the phone-home validation make it not worth the trouble. I'm just waiting for the day when Bondware removes that feature so I can migrate from PPro14 to the current version.

I have to be honest in that the feature has not been a problem for me while running Poser 11, I can't vouch for Game Dev as I stopped using it as soon as I discovered the feature existed. I sort of accepted the feature was a cost I had to pay if I was going to use Superfly and the other benefits of Poser 11. Despite that I hate the feature with a vengeance as I do know it does cause others lot of trouble and I am never sure if I have just been lucky.

I would really welcome Bondware dumping this feature as I think it only penalises the genuine users of Poser with little or no impact on the pirates. For all that, I do not know Bondwares plans, on this or any other feature, and I do not know what exactly were the terms of the purchase. It may be this is the was the best short term solution and there are longer terms plans. What I do know is that the idea of concentrating on a single version of Poser, including all the bells and whistles of the Pro version, the addition of so much high quality content and the free upgrade to those who would have lost the use Poser otherwise are decisions that should be applauded. With this is mind I am more than willing to give them some space while they decide how to take Poser forward, including the licensing, which I suspect will be down a much better path and much quicker than it would have done had it have been left in the hands of SM.

I recognize that Smith Micro was cash strapped at the time, so I do understand the reasoning behind starting the phone home feature. That said, I have to go back to what I said before, when your direct competitor is giving away their software for free, and their paying for yours, it makes little sense to make your remaining customers jump through hoops to keep your software running on their computers.

But if we're going by competitors giving away their software for free, you could say that, say, Maya would need to hold back on their prices or practices because Blender is free. It IS a competitor - but many users will still prefer to pay for Maya.

I don't think competition rules everything, honestly.

On the other hand, I still mantain that phoning home does nothing to stop piracy, so to me the only thing it does is annoy legit users.

Here's the problem, Blender isn't part of the open market. Maya is. Maya has overhead and employees. Blender has people and companies giving it money. Studio, despite being free, is still a part of the open free market. It has overhead, costs of doing business, and employees. Their money comes from the sale of content, Poser's comes from the sale of software. When and while Studio was being developed, it was following Poser's lead, so Poser had an advantage. That advantage fell away though because Poser had a symbiotic relationship with DAZ. When the new owners took over DAZ, they didn't really care about the old relationship, they became competitors. It was a shift in dynamics that Smith Micro didn't recognize until too late. In my opinion the only smart thing they did was not to fall into the Genesis trap.

I'm one of the pitchers. Sorry. Overall this change is an excellent thing, because software by subscription is a TERRIBLE thing. I'm glad to have Poser back under control of Poser people, instead of Big Data people like Smith Micro. And I'm especially glad to have it out of the subscription setup.

A recent news item shows just how TERRIBLE subscription software is. Adobe participated in Deepstate's war on Venezuela by turning off all subscriptions to Adobe tools in Venezuela. This is the digital equivalent of invading a country and stealing the tools from workshops. In the real world this would be considered an act of war, but in the digital world it's just business as usual.

Judging by recent emails Daz might be going for a subscription system too ... Have a shufti; I might has misinterpreted their last request for info.

Too many going for the subs system. Extensis, Adobe, Quark ... I shall continue to look for alternatives that do not require constant payment.

Deepstate? That is an incorrect analogy. Deepstate is a shadow government that works from within the government. This was done in the light of day by the President of the United States according to two different news sources. Source 1 is here and Source 2 contains the official notice from Adobe which states...

“Due to the recent presidential executive order in the United States (Executive Order 13884) regarding activities with the government of Venezuela, Adobe is no longer permitted to provide you with access to software and services or enable you to make any new purchases,” Adobe said in its email to customers in Venezuela.

Users will not get any refunds, according to a notice published to Adobe’s website, and the tech giant says that the sanctions won’t allow it to issue refunds even if they wanted to.

“We are unable to issue refunds,” Adobe says on its site. “Executive order 13884, orders the cessation of all activity with the entities including no sales, service, support, refunds, credits, etc.”

In the United States, only one person can issue an executive order. The President of the United States. Adobe is taking a financial hit because they can't get a dime without breaking the law. Those are facts.

Private conjecture would be that an entire country of artists may turn into pirates. Please feel free to contact the President and voice your support or displeasure at his actions. His name is Trump. Just a point of clarity. In approximately one year and one month from today, it is National Pitch a Bitch day. The American people will have a pleasant talk with more than a few of our elected leaders. Please stay tuned.