Online piracy is widespread in the United States and even more so in the rest of the world. 70% of people find piracy acceptable. It’s digital theft, but something about it makes people overlook the theft aspect of it.

I grew up in Russia where now 73% of installed software is stolen. United States on the other hand is at 20%. To me, these numbers always seemed insane. Lets look at the reality of the situation. Adobe Photoshop costs $700. Can a 15 year old recreational web/graphic designer afford that? In fact, can any recreational designer afford that? What should the price be such that they would?

I’m pondering this question as I’m enjoying my 30 day trial of the software, and for the first time, I see a reasonable answer from Adobe. They are now selling a $50 monthly subscription that gives access to all their products on a month-to-month basis. I think that will draw a lot of pirates out of the dark caves and actually pay for the awesome products they use.

Of course, I would love it if piracy was made much more difficult and then the price could  go down to $20 a month or less. But if we learned anything from the Internet, the thing that makes it powerful is also the thing that makes it very difficult to police.

I don’t like writing about piracy, but I wanted to write a quick note complimenting Adobe for thinking outside the box, literally and figuratively.

By the way, the suite of products in Adobe CS6 Master Collection is awesome. There are a lot of improvement in the interface, workflow, and feature set.