Adjusting Workflows: Anti-DRM Rant

After years of wrestling with DRM and losing access to software I paid for, I’ve restructured my workflow to ensure that never happens again. DRM turned me from a paying customer into a hostage. This is how I escaped.

The Early Years (2010–2015)

In April 2010, I performed a major upgrade to my main workstation. Along with the hardware upgrade and upgrading the OS to Windows 7, I bought Adobe Creative Suite 4, Cakewalk Music Creator 5, and a couple of software synths and sound libraries from IK Multimedia. Cakewalk Music Creator 5 was a limited version of Sonar, which was still enough for my needs at the time. I bought Adobe CS4 primarily for work (I was developing Flash / ActionScript applications at the time) and an animation project. While Cakewalk didn’t require any online activation, Adobe CS4 did, along with SampleTank and Miroslav Philharmonik from IK Multimedia. At the time, it didn’t seem like too much of a bother, but a few years later, after additional changes to my workstation, the IK Multimedia software had to be re-activated. The process became increasingly difficult and emails to customer support were necessary just to get permission to use the software for which I had paid.

Losing Access and Lockouts

Since I had a perpetual license for Adobe CS4, I didn’t worry too much about re-activation if I ever had to reinstall it, but, eventually, Adobe announced that they “had to retire their aging activation servers” for CS4 and it was official — my $1800 perpetual license was no longer valid should I ever have to reinstall. Adobe’s excuse regarding “aging activation servers” is a thinly-veiled attempt to force old customers onto Creative Cloud, their exorbitant subscription service. The very idea that anyone would believe Adobe retired the activation servers for technical reasons is a sick joke. With IK Multimedia’s software synthesizers, eventually customer support refused to assist me and I was locked out of SampleTank this year via their onerous Digital Rights Management software, or DRM. DRM is supposedly a measure to protect corporate profits from software piracy. In practice, however, it does more to punish legitimate customers than to stop the distribution of unauthorized copies. It’s all about control. While the old versions of Cakewalk Music Creator 5 and 6 still work, the limitations of the software, which I hadn’t dealt with since BandLab bought Cakewalk and made a free version of Sonar from February 2018 until some time early this year (2025), were less than ideal for newer projects. BandLab eventually disposed of the free version of Sonar and made it “freemium” subscription software.

Switching to Open Tools

In 2019, I started moving away from using Adobe Photoshop CS4 for drawing and digital painting, opting to use Krita instead. For my purposes, Krita is superior to Photoshop CS4 for drawing, painting, and most image editing workflows. Early on, I had also moved from Adobe Soundbooth CS4 to Audacity, which also proved to be superior for the audio editing work I typically do. For video editing, Adobe Premiere and After Effects would crash very frequently, so I replaced them with DaVinci Resolve, KDEnlive, and Blender. As with the aforementioned examples, these options proved to be superior for my needs. While I still use Cakewalk Music Creator to open legacy projects, I’ve switched to Reaper, which is not free software but reasonably-priced and completely free of DRM. Ditching the IK Multimedia software synths, I opted to use soundfonts to replace all of the ROMpler sounds of those proprietary synths. SampleTank and Miroslav Philharmonik used to be my “bread-and-butter” synths, but after IK Multimedia locked me out of using them via DRM, I found better alternatives.

Reflections on DRM and Corporate Greed

While the purpose of this article is to rant about how anti-consumer DRM is, it is also about how I found solutions and encourage others to migrate to DRM-free alternatives. Both Adobe and IK Multimedia’s customer support told me “we don’t support old software” with regard to the activation issues, despite the fact that I purchased perpetual licenses. Companies don’t have to support old software — they should have to honor the terms of the contract. It’s entirely possible the fine print — written by sneaky corporate lawyers — provided for the ability to revoke access to the software for any reason. Still, they bury this provision in order to get more sales.

As an aside, I did not write this article with ChatGPT; I use emdashes (alt-0151) manually in my word processor: LibreOffice Writer. While I have used ChatGPT to revise my writing in the past, I stopped doing that because it changes the tone far too much.

I’m done with Adobe and IK Multimedia. In my opinion, they are extremely abusive, anti-consumer, and exploitative corporations that do not deserve anyone’s business. Why should anyone have to beg permission to use software they’ve bought outright? Once you adjust your workflow, it’s often more powerful than the proprietary tools. It can often prove to be a very worthwhile transition.

Krita is very powerful as an illustration and animation tool. Its text tools are weak, but will eventually improve. Inkscape is a great replacement for Adobe Illustrator. Blender is so feature-packed and capable for 3D modeling, rendering, motion graphics, and video editing that it’s difficult to believe it is free, yet it is. DaVinci Resolve is far superior to Adobe Premiere. KDEnlive is steadily improving and is already a solid video editor for simpler projects.

Reaper, while not free, only cost me $65 and it’s the best digital audio workstation (DAW) I’ve ever used. I like Cakewalk Music Creator, but Reaper will be used for all new projects.

If your work allows it, please consider making the switch to alternatives if you use Adobe. Not only does Adobe seemingly change the terms of the sale after a purchase, they’ve had some recent scandals regarding scanning user files for unapproved content, training their AI on user content, using dark patterns to hide steep and abusive cancellation fees, and sudden outrageous price hikes. They eliminated perpetual licenses and only offer subscriptions to their software in 2013. In the long run, consumers end up paying far more for the software than they would with a one-time purchase and upgrading only when needed.

Furthermore, Adobe even threatened legal action against users who didn’t upgrade their Creative Cloud software to the latest version. In my opinion, they are a disgusting company. IK Multimedia, while not behaving as egregiously as Adobe, still does not appear to honor perpetual licenses, and I will avoid them from now on. The flexibility of soundfonts has made their software obsolete for my needs. There has been a period of adjustment, but it has been well worth it. No longer do I need to worry about re-activating software. Krita, Inkscape, Audacity, Blender, Resolve, KDEnlive, LibreOffice, and Reaper allow me to accomplish whatever I need to do for my projects. If you’re an artist or a music maker, I believe you can benefit from making the switch.

To be clear, I’m not against capitalism. While it’s not a perfect system, it allows for prosperity. Still, greed exists and capitalism continues to be abused by large corporations. Those who make free, open-source software, along with affordable, DRM-free commercial software, are providing humanity with an invaluable service.

I would strongly encourage supporting open source projects and purchasing DRM-free software from honest developers. I don’t want to have to ask a company permission in order to use or install software for which I have paid. I do not want to “rent” the software upon which I depend for my projects. I want software that I can confidently run every day as long as my hardware and OS support it. These greedy corporations must be starved of profits.

The more we support ethical alternatives, which are often technically superior to their expensive counterparts, the more widespread their adoption. Switching to free software and DRM-free software is not just about saving money. For me, it’s more about peace of mind. Having tried-and-true software on your system, ready to use, no asking permission from an activation server, and having zero risk of a greedy company suddenly revoking access, is extremely liberating.

If enough of us choose DRM-free tools, we send a message that software ownership still matters.