From CNET: With the newest version of its Lightroom software for editing and cataloging photos, Adobe has made good on an earlier commitment to ensure people don't lose access to their photos even if they stop paying for subscription access to the software itself.
Adobe offers Lightroom in two ways: first, through sale of a traditional perpetual license that means the software keeps on working, but that doesn't grant access to software updates; and second, through its Creative Cloud subscription plan in which customers pay monthly to use the latest version of Adobe software. That includes the $50-per-month full Creative Cloud that covers all Adobe's software, but also the $10-per-month Photoshop Photography Program, which includes Lightroom and Photoshop.
Some photographers, though, were leery of subscriptions, worried they'd get locked out of their photo catalogs. Starting with the newest Lightroom, released in June, that won't happen, though they won't be able to perform detailed editing operations or to add location data to their photos anymore if they cease their subscriptions.
The subscription tweak could mollify some of the abundant Creative Cloud subscription skeptics. Although Adobe has showed steadily climbing subscription rates, rising to 2.308 million at the end of May and bringing recurring revenue at a rate of $1.2 billion per year, a vocal group is angry at the idea of software that stops working when they stop paying.
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