Most software companies offer their wares at low prices to students and faculty. This is hardly a selfless act. The intent is to create and maintain a long term loyalty to tools that will later be used .. to the software provider’s profit .. by professionals in the working world.The tactic works. Adobe, for example has a virtual monopoly on scientific publication since almost all research is made available in the Adobe Acrobat format, “pdf.” While Adobe makes its pdf reader available free, authoring pdfs makes their software essential.Adobe is now taking a very worrisome and different tack .. the company’s new annual fee structure means huge and possibly prohibitive costs to students and faculty. Adobe’s action might man little IF they did nto have a near monopoly of such essential academic tools as the pdf format and the essential tool for photography, Photoshop.
University officials say that new pricing plans are hard to understand and may represent large increases in fees.
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Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed