Adobe, The First Major Tech Company That Complies With Donald Trump’s Order Against Venezuela

10/10/2019

The U.S. President Donald Trump has taken additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015, to block the property and suspending the entry of certain persons contributing to the situation in Venezuela.

And here, his orders among others, were for all property and interests in property that are in the U.S. to "not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in."

Adobe, the multinational computer software company, has become the very first that complies with the President's Executive Order that bars U.S. companies from doing businesses with Venezuela.

According to Trump:

"In light of the continued usurpation of power by Nicolas Maduro and persons affiliated with him, as well as human rights abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful arrest and detention of Venezuelan citizens, interference with freedom of expression, including for members of the media, and ongoing attempts to undermine Interim President Juan Guaido and the Venezuelan National Assembly’s exercise of legitimate authority in Venezuela."
Adobe forbidden in Venezuela

Adobe's move comes as a surprise, given that other major tech companies have yet to respond to Trump's orders.

Popular services like Google Drive, PayPal, Microsoft OneDrive and others that are based in the U.S. still work in Venezuela, as of Adobe's move. This shows how Adobe seems to be taking an extra cautious approach in interpreting the wording of the President's order, which seems to mainly be focused on the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro and those who support him.

Adobe users in Venezuela have until October 28th to download any of their files that are stored in their Adobe accounts. And unfortunately for those users, Adobe said that Trump's order prevents the company from providing refunds to Venezuelans who paid for its products.

This highlights the biggest problem with subscription-model apps, which make software not truly owned by users.

According to Adobe on its help page:

"In order to comply with that order, Adobe will deactivate all accounts in Venezuela on October 29, 2019, with the exception of Behance."

"Customers who bought their products directly with Adobe will receive a refund before the end of the month for any paid and unpaid license period. We are working for our distributors to act in the same way. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to our customers. We will share more details on how our operations and activities could be affected to our customers, as they become available."

Adobe, popular for its products like Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, InDesign, Acrobat and many more, moved to a subscription model in 2013.

Starting 2019, users can no longer buy a permanent license for any of its apps.

Adobe opt to use this model to make pricing more accessible and affordable for users. This way, Adobe can ensure that it can attract more individuals and beginners into using its products. Using subscription model, Adobe can also push updates faster.

Deliberately, Adobe's products can't be truly owned by its users. With Adobe having more control of its apps, the company also has the ability to take its software away from its users, whenever it wants.

The move by Adobe affects both free and paid accounts.