Photoshop legit vs pirated

[Forkjulle]

Before anyone throws a morality card at me, I don't own a pirated Photoshop. However, I once did (as most of us once did).

Moving along to a discussion I had with a friend:

What I want to know is whether or not a pirated installation of Photoshop, on your Mac, can mess up your Mac's registry or root or general performance. Versus a clean installation of a legit Photoshop.

Or is the pirated copy merely just a hack of Photoshop's lockdown (which won't affect one's Mac)?

My gut feeling is that it can ruin things, but my friend disagrees. What do you think?

 

[MacDawg]

There is no way of knowing whether a pirated copy of Photoshop is "clean" or if it contains some form of trojan or malware
Certain torrents of iWork and Adobe CS in the past were contaminated and wreaked some havoc

Use at your own risk (and conscience)

 

[Weaselboy]

There is certainly a risk any pirated software like this contains malware.

However, if one determined what the MD5 hash was for a legit install DMG and ensured the downloaded DMG had the same hash, this would be an indication the files were exactly the same and the downloaded one had not been altered.

 

[CylonGlitch]

MD5 hash was for a legit install DMG and ensured the downloaded DMG had the same hash, this would be an indication the files were exactly the same and the downloaded one had not been altered.

All that would prove is that the copy obtained is the same as the original. But with the case of Photoshop it will have to have a different hash (in this case) because they modified the code / data to circumvent Adobe's copy protection. All the MD5 verifies is that the code is the same as what he expected to download (if it had Malware in it, this would be included in the hash).

 

[Weaselboy]

All that would prove is that the copy obtained is the same as the original. But with the case of Photoshop it will have to have a different hash (in this case) because they modified the code / data to circumvent Adobe's copy protection. All the MD5 verifies is that the code is the same as what he expected to download (if it had Malware in it, this would be included in the hash).

I'm not familiar with how Photoshop is installed, or hacked for that matter. I was just explaining how to verify the downloaded file is the same as the original. How it gets hacked after that I have no idea.

 

[snberk103]

One of the very few ways to get infected with malware on OS X, was to download a pirated a version of Photoshop from a dodgy website, or to get it from friend who downloaded it. Since you were needed an admin password to install Photoshop the parasitic trojan also gained privileges. I don't know if this is still an issue, but it was a few years ago. Not every pirated copy was infected of course, but you never really knew in advance.

Very few people who can't afford Photoshop actually need the full version anyway, imho. Either you are in school and have access to the heavily discounted academic versions, or you are a hobbiest who probably would find Elements sufficient, or you are a pro who can write off the cost of the software on your taxes. Not saying that there aren't exceptions, but in the majority of cases I see, people don't use Photoshop to more than 5% of what it does. Heck, I am a professional, and I doubt I am using it beyond 25% of its capability.

 

[ChrisA]

What I want to know is whether or not a pirated installation of Photoshop, on your Mac, can mess up your Mac's registry or root or general performance. Versus a clean installation of a legit Photoshop.

It would be very easy for me to write "anything" and then call it "Photoshop" and place it on the Internet. You would not know you got the wrong thing until after it was to late.

That said, why bother Adobe provide free 1 month tials of it's software and you KNOW those are clean. Then if you need to pirate it you start with that. So a pirsted copy CAN be 100% known good because it was direct from Adobe.

Then there are many shades of grey between.

But thisis Mac OS X. No software can mess with your system unless you give it permission and click "OK".

NEVER run day to day stuff on you Mac while logged into an account with admin privilege. NEVER do that. Make an account called "Admin" and another with your name for normal use. All software that is run on unix-like OS (such as Mac OS X) will run the software using the privilege of the account. So you want to run in an un-privileged account.

 

[arjen92]

The latest photoshop (or Adobe Master Collection) hack is done with a trial. So Photoshop is acquired by getting it from Adobe self. If you don't want to create an account it's possible to get a trial version from somewhere else as well.

So you don't have any malware or viruses once it's installed. (it's the trial version)

You only swap a file in the program to bypass activation.

The only way a virus or malware could be installed is when the trial is from a bad source, or swapping the file causes harm in any way. But that would be quite genius from the hacker, to make the part in photoshop that checks whether it's activated into something that brakes down or takes over your mac.

 

[cjmillsnun]

I'm sorry but I AM going to lecture on the morality of pirating PS (and this isn't a dig at the OP, just a general comment).

Please don't do it. Various sources do contain trojans and although there are ways of obtaining safe versions and then hacking them, it's immoral, especially if you use that product to make money.

Adobe do "Creative Cloud" which allows you to legally use any of the CS applications for a monthly fee. This has the advantage of upgrades to the latest version when it is released.

 

[old-wiz]

What I want to know is whether or not a pirated installation of Photoshop, on your Mac, can mess up your Mac's registry or root or general performance. Versus a clean installation of a legit Photoshop.
?

Macs/OSx does not have a "registry" ..that is a Windows only mess.

 

[ChrisA]

I'm sorry but I AM going to lecture on the morality of pirating PS (and this isn't a dig at the OP, just a general comment).

Please don't do it. Various sources do contain trojans and although there are ways of obtaining safe versions and then hacking them, it's immoral, especially if you use that product to make money.

I think the question was only theoretical. Could it cause a problem?

But if you actulaay want a free copy, there is a legal way. Buy a Wacom graphic tablet for $99 and inside is a bundled copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements. "Elements has everything you'd need and yu'd need to know quite a bit to know it from the full PS release. This did not used to be the case but over the years Adobe has been adding fetures to "Elements". You need the tablet so buy it for $99 and PS is free inside the box.

 

[Dolorian]

But if you actulaay want a free copy, there is a legal way. Buy a Wacom graphic tablet for $99 and inside is a bundled copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements. "Elements has everything you'd need and yu'd need to know quite a bit to know it from the full PS release. This did not used to be the case but over the years Adobe has been adding fetures to "Elements". You need the tablet so buy it for $99 and PS is free inside the box.

Or maybe just get Pixelmator for $15 if Elements proves to be enough for your purposes.

 

[thekev]

Adobe do "Creative Cloud" which allows you to legally use any of the CS applications for a monthly fee. This has the advantage of upgrades to the latest version when it is released.

Their monthly fee is a little deceiving. If you want to lease it monthly, the rate is much higher than if you pay a year at a time. Even then if you have a prior license that can be upgraded, it's still much cheaper than the annual rate.

I think the question was only theoretical. Could it cause a problem?

But if you actulaay want a free copy, there is a legal way. Buy a Wacom graphic tablet for $99 and inside is a bundled copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements. "Elements has everything you'd need and yu'd need to know quite a bit to know it from the full PS release. This did not used to be the case but over the years Adobe has been adding fetures to "Elements". You need the tablet so buy it for $99 and PS is free inside the box.

They used to even have promotions where you could upgrade from the bundled versions for $350. I did that a number of years ago with I think version 6 or 7, one of those. I had a student license prior to that, but the upgrade was via the tablet bundle. I think Adobe copied the subscription model from Autodesk.