I guess I’m confused about what’s going on here.
Creative Cloud (CC) and Creative Suite (CS) are different products. CC fully replaced CS a decade ago, and the last version of CS was CS6. CS was a buy-it-once software package with traditional licensing. CC is a subscription-based software product.
This announcement specifically points to old versions of CC apps, and does not mention CS apps. Given the alluded-to-but-not-specified legal issues behind this announcement, I would expect that if CS were meant to be included here, it would have been stated. So presumably, if you are still using a version of CS, nothing has changed.
There are really only two scenarios for running “old” versions of CC apps: either your subscription has lapsed, or you haven’t upgraded to the most current version. If the former, you’ve never been permitted, under licensing terms, to continue to use the apps without an active subscription, so nothing has changed there.
If the latter, you’re continuing to pay to use out-of-date apps that you could update at no additional cost. (Presumably, by “old” versions, they’re not talking about minor updates, but major version upgrades. It would be beyond stupid to penalize users who simply haven’t run the CC updater in a while and missed a few updates.) The only scenario in which this makes sense is if you are using older hardware that can’t run the current version. And it doesn’t make sense for Adobe to penalize these users if they’re still paying.
CS6 is far too old to be useable on current hardware, so if you want to use Photoshop, subscription is how you have to do it. And there has never been any pretense that you “own” any version of subscription software; you have access to it as long as you pay, and not a minute longer. So nothing has changed here with regard to the idea of “owning what you buy”: you don’t “own” any version of CC, and never have.
So the only users I see having grounds to complain about this are those unable to run the most current versions but are still paying for a CC subscription. For the rest of us, this announcement has zero effect.
Complain about subscription software all you want—please do! I hate the subscription model—I see it as predatory rent-seeking. But I don’t understand the sudden outcry about what seems to be primarily a reiteration of existing license terms.
Is there something I’m missing?