I'd like to report that the claim that Photoshop CS2 is free, is incorrect. On this forum's "resources" page
http://forums.kc-mm.com/Gallery/Resources.php it states that:
Photoshop - You can get Photoshop CS2 for free just by registering an Adobe ID. Versions above CS2 are not free. Photoshop does the best job at modifying images on a professional level.
This is incorrect. When going to Adobe's website, and logging in with my Adobe ID (which I got for free and anyone get for free by just by registering like any other registration based site, without purchasing any software, and is needed to comment in their forums) and then going to the page to download Photoshop CS2, it says:
The serial numbers provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.
While they do not put any technical safeguards/copyprotections/drm in place to prevent non-customers who have a free Adobe ID (like I do), from downloading and using Photoshop CS2 and the included serial numbers, they expect that you will follow the rules (a sort of "honor system") and ONLY download this if you previously purchased the software. It doesn't matter that this is hosted on Adobe's own website, instead of a software piracy website. And it doesn't matter that Adobe has officially released an unprotected (no activation required) version of it. The fact is, that if you have not previously purchased the software, downloading it (even from Adobe's own site) is the ILLEGAL act of software piracy. Just because they have no way to check your honesty when you download and use it, does NOT make it legal to download it without having previously purchased it. You might think "it doesn't matter if I download it without buying it, after all it's not a piracy site, it's Adobe's own site, and they'd never post something on their own website that would make themselves vulnerable to be victims of piracy". But that would be incorrect to assume that as indeed they HAVE posted something on their website that DOES make them vulnerable to piracy, and they expect YOU to do the right thing, and to NOT download it if you've not previously purchased it. So yes, if you download this from the Adobe website, and have not purchased it, you have just committed a crime.
So for the sake of keeping everything as legal as possible on the kc-mm forums, I'm requesting that the incorrect claim of free PS-CS2 that is made on the page
http://forums.kc-mm.com/Gallery/Resources.php be corrected, so that this site doesn't end up condoning piracy. The last thing that this site needs is to get shut down due to it condoning piracy. Hacking games is already a legal "gray area". Any appearance of known illegal actions like piracy (or condoning such actions), puts this site in serious risk of being shut down by the feds.
Also read this article, in which an Adobe employee is quoted as saying that the idea that Photoshop CS2 is free is incorrect, and that you need to have already purchased it to legally download the no-activation-required version of Photoshop CS2 and associated serial number.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/01/07/download-adobe-cs2-applications-for-free/