No more Adobe in Venezuela? Dangers of subscription services!

So turns out that like I said before, there is an inherit danger in relying on subscription software for your work. If you live in Venezuela then as of October 28th, 2019 you will no longer have access to any of the Adobe products.

That’s right you read that correctly. Adobe users in Venezuela are probably considering using pirated versions of the Adobe products after October 28th since Adobe will no longer provide any of their services there do to sanctions that were imposed on the country. The U.S. Government issued Executive Order 13884 which prohibits almost all transactions and services between U.S. companies, entities, and individuals in Venezuela. To remain compliant with this order, Adobe is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela. This include access to Adobe cloud. So if you store any of your files on Adobe’s servers you will have until October 28th to back them up another way. Same if you are using Adobe stock services.

Like I talked about in my post about why I switched to Davinci Resolve after using Adobe products for almost 20 years reliable access to the software is key. I don’t live in Venezuela, but I do travel a lot for my work. Often when I was in remote locations with limited internet access I was unable to use Adobe Premiere, After Effects or Photoshop simply because I wasn’t able to verify that I had a paid subscription. This even happen when I prepaid for a whole year of their products! This reminds me that anyone in Venezuela who has prepaid for any Adobe products will also not be getting any refunds as the company posted in their official statement. That’s a huge bummer for those who prepaid of course but also one of the reasons I mentioned in my video about why Adobe’s subscription model is a big problem to any serious professional.

In the end Adobe is in the business of renting their software. You are never actually buying or owning it. For example if you were to buy Final Cut Pro or Davinci Resolve then even after these sanctions you would still have access to your software. By using Adobe products you are just renting it and paying for it for as long as you plan to use it. This of course can add up a lot over time and will definitely cost you more then any of the other software options out there.

In the end if you like the subscription model or not, I am happy with the decision I made last year to switch away from using Adobe products. You can read more about that in my post here.

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