Can I legally sell my CS3 Production Premium Academic?

Question

I recently purchased an academic version of Adobe CS3 Production Premium (full, not an upgrade). It has been nothing but a nightmare and I am extremely unhappy with every aspect of the product. I have deactivated it and was forced to reformat my hard drive (low level)and reinstall Windows (per recommendation of Adobe tech support) because it completely borked my TCP/IP settings somehow and caused massive registry errors, and according to Adobe, leaves markers in the MBR that relate to the Flexnet licensing and Windows operation.
I has been well over 30 days and the vendor I purchased from stated quite clearly that I am no longer entitled to a refund, only a courtesy exchange. Since I will never use CS3 ever again, an exchange is not helpful to me.
I have already registered the software, but now have deactivated and have no trace of Adobe software of any kind on my computer. What are the legal rights concerning selling the software package, in its entirety, through channels such as ebay? If it is legal to do so, what steps must I take to ensure that the purchaser can register and use the program without my registration conflicting?
Thanks in advance,
Mark Terry

Answer 1

>It's hard to take a rant like this seriously, or agree with anything >that's
>been said, when it's constructed entirely of sweeping >generalisations with
>no reference to facts.
I'm not writing a scientific paper for peer-based review. I'm simply giving my opinion of the software and why I am desperate to sell it to recoup my losses.
I have already written in these forums time and time again with numerous CS3 related problems, as have hundreds of others who had similar problems with crashing software, botched installs, and endless headaches related to Flexnet licensing.
On top of that, in the brief period of time that CS3 did work, I found Photoshop CS3 to be less responsive than CS2 (or even 7!), and the interfaces for After Effects, Encore, and Premiere had horrible "jiggly" UI elements that would shift around with terrible redraw issues.
As an experienced computer user, my first instinct is to examine my system and reserve judgment on the software. However, after diagnostics my system was seen to be behaving normally. It's a 2.66GHz dual core system with 2GB ram and dual 8800 GTS 512 video cards, all the latest stable drivers and performs exceedingly well with all the other software I routinely utilize. Only Adobe CS3 was having this trouble; at first.
After the numerous steps taken to deactivate, reactivate, (so many deactivations and reactivations that Adobe had to "reset" my limit twice) uninstall and reinstall, running the cs3clean utility along with the Microsoft cleanup utility my entire TCP/IP subsystem became corrupted as well as numerous registry entries. Soon my system was taking upwards of eight minutes to boot up and I had no network functionality at all.
The fact that I was knowledgeable enough to rectify the situation doesn't diminish the fact the CS3 cost me not just hours, but weeks of hassle with its problems (causing such systemwide havoc as to render my syste unusable for any work at all). Only after all traces of Adobe software were entirely removed did my system regain normal functionality. This required a ow level format, according to Adobe, since they write licensing information to your MBR, to prevent people from using multiple copies of software in various boot sessions.
It seems evident (to me) that the crux of the problem is the Flexnet licensing system. It is so blunt and clumsy that the slightest problem renders everything useless. I understand Adobe's need to prevent unauthorized use, but if that means punishing the legal and the loyal, and furthermore, when it interferes with the functionality and dependability of the software, then I have to say that I will not use the software.
Whether or not the root of the problem is Flexnet, or Adobe, or my system, the bottom line is that the software simply does not do what it was intended to do.
For now I am relying on other software, which, to varying degrees, gets the job done. Of course, I'm left with a copy of CS3 gathering dust on my shelf. The box is quite heavy though, I coud use it as a doorstop and make beer coasters of the DVDs.
-Mark