Digital Home Thoughts: Photoshop Elements 8 DRM: No Third Install for You!

The above screen shot was taken yesterday when I fired up Photoshop Elements 8 [affiliate] on my media editing computer. I was surprised to see this warning about the serial number conflict, because I tend to install most of my software on two or three of my computers and most software developers don't put heavy-handed license activation on their consumer-level products (unlike Photoshop for instance). I think most software (other than operating systems of course) licensing should be on a per-user basis rather than a per-computer basis, so I really appreciate software developers that allow for two or three installs right in the EULA, and when they don't use activation - mostly because activation tends to be fraught with problems.

In this instance here, I'd installed Photoshop Elements 8 on this same computer a couple of months ago, but had a motherboard failure and needed to wipe and re-install everything. Because I wasn't able to de-activate the software first (frankly, I didn't even realize I had to in the first place), the software thinks I have it on two computers...but it's really the same computer. You can see the problem here - and now that means I can't install it on my laptop. Guess I'll be installing Photoshop Elements 7...

What I dislike the most here is that there's no phone number to call for help, nor is there any way to remotely force the deactivation of the license. Why not let me "purge" the other license that's supposedly in use to free it up? Ultimately none of this should be necessary; this type of heavy-handed activation shouldn't be applied to a product that sells for $75. Save the draconian measures for your professional software, OK Adobe? Or, better yet, trust your customers in the first place.