Just logged into Adobe.com...

[Mario]

and was forced to accept a 13+ pages (A4) license agreement before being able to continue to access software and services I have already paid for.
This is how it looked on my 4K monitor (resized to 800 pixel for this post):



I've copied the text into the clipboard and from there into Word so I can read it. I'm not sure if it is legal to a) force acceptance of a new license agreement without allowing me to access software I've already paid for and b) making it extra hard to read the stuff. I mean, its 13 pages of text squeezed in such a tiny space, with 20 links to other large documents for various services which all may affect you in some way.

I'm sure that Adobe's law department has spent person years carefully crafting all these sentences of legalese, ensuring a minimum of attack vectors against Adobe and as little chance for normal people to get their right before court. Which would be a court in London, because I'm from Germany...

There are several sections which I don't really like. For example that Adobe recommends that you maintain separate backups for all content you upload to their cloud. But they don't state anything about how they backup things or if they backup your data at all...they just bla-bla about economically reasonable measures on their side.

You also give Adobe permission to access your content (whatever you upload to them) with their machine learning and A.I. systems. Reason: so Adobe can "improve their services". They don' tell you what they do with your content or how you can prevent their A.I. from analyzing your files. In case you don't like this.

A few pages below that Adobe reserves the right to access your content in any way if they consider this necessary to to ensure the "rights", "property" or "security" of Adobe, users or the public . Which can mean anything.

Even if you don't like this, you have to accept this before you can access your Adobe software. Or make changes. Or just check your license status.

[BanjoTom]

Appalling, horrifying, terrible!  Another reason not to like Adobe. . .

[Jingo]

Appalling, horrifying, terrible!  Another reason not to like Adobe. . .

Unfortunately, this is not just Adobe but the norm in the industry... Google just LOVES you to use their "free" photo cloud so they can use your photos to support their algorithms... and - let's not forget the Captcha's that Google uses to help identify photos with signs, cars, mountains, stores, etc.... a rather ingenious way to prevent access while letting the population help identify objects for their own software!

[Mario]

The sad truth is: Make it free and people will sign up for anything. Free cloud storage. Free photo web site. Free document storage. Free sharing your files. Free...

Only a few users actually think before signing up or handing over their precious personal photos to some sort of service.
Or even read the license agreement before doing so.
Which usually includes statements like "When you upload photos to us, we analyze them with whatever we've got to gather data about you and to sell this data at the highest price". Of course we analyze the faces and image data on your family photos so we know who you know and where you live and where you went on your vacation. We may also sell your personal data, usage, behavior and combine what we've learn about you with data from other sources and then make even more money by showing you ads wherever possible.

And, these ads are payed for by companies from which you buy products. Which means that you actually pay for all the ads we annoy you with. Fool!

[Mees Dekker]

If anything is free; you are the product.