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Late-Breaking News

Adobe Systems

06/26/2007 - The CU Book Store is pleased to announce that effective June 12, 2007 we are able to take orders for Adobe institutional software licenses.  The current pricing is reflected in the Adobe pricelist found posted on this site (see our licensing page titled, “Licensing Pricelist and Program Requirements”).  There are NO limits to the number of licenses that must be purchased as was the case in the past.  However, this is an institutional agreement which means that purchases are made for direct installation on University-owned systems; not for personal use on a non-University-owned computer. 

 

With respect to the Adobe CLP pricelist posted, there are a couple of items of which to be aware.  First for those considering purchase of the applicable Upgrade Plan (formerly called “Maintenance) along with the license, you’ll note that pricing is based upon the time, in six month increments, remaining on the University’s 2-year contract.  Since our contract is new, the “24-month” line item pricing applies to purchases of Upgrade plans.  After six months (approximately October, 2007), will enter the 18-month period with a corresponding decrease in the purchase price. 

 

The second item of note is the ability to purchase physical media that is drop shipped directly to the end-user purchaser to install the software.  The purchaser has the choice to do this and/or choose Electronic Software Download (ESD) direct from the Adobe servers.  There is a charge for the physical media, but ESD is free.  We would like purchasers to carefully note that if choosing the ESD option, to be sure that you do the download using a high-speed connection.  We’ve found that with some licensing titles the downloadable files range from 1 to 3 GB in size.  Also, there are a limited number of titles where ESD is NOT an option (really obscure titles however).

 

 Purchases must be made with an A-Card or Interdepartmental Order (IN) and orders can only be placed via email to cynthia.ocken@colorado.edu.  We do not accept telephone orders.  Please do NOT include your A-Card number in your email order request.  We’ll contact you via phone for this information at the appropriate time of order.

 

 The aforementioned only applies to institutional purchases of Adobe software licenses for departmental use.  Should you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact the store licensing contract administrator at (303) 492-3429 during normal store business hours.

 

07/19/07 – IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING ADOBE ELECTRONIC SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS (ESD).  PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.  We’ve received numerous comments from customers experiencing difficulty trying to access and perform ESD from the Adobe Web site.  The CU Book Store certainly understands the frustration and inconvenience some of our Adobe licensing customers have experienced.  Please understand that where difficulties exist within the Adobe licensing system, we are addressing those concerns directly to Adobe.  However, we think additional explanation of the process and available customer options are also in order to help reduce the confusion and inconvenience for the end-user purchasers.

Before a discussion of problems with ESD, we need to briefly review the actual ordering process as a few customers are clearly confused on how the whole affair works.  When you submit your order to CU Book Store licensing Coordinator, cynthia.ocken@colorado.edu, we need to know clearly who the ultimate end-user is.  That is, the person who Adobe will register the license to and who will probably install (either thru ESD or with receipt of physical media) on their computer(s).  Adobe is NOT interested in who pays for the licensing.  An example would be where Mary Smith, a Department Administrative Assistant, orders licensing products for Profs. John Doe and Ed Franks.  Mary would submit a separate order to the CU Book Store for each of her faculty members, providing their complete, names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical mailing addresses, including their respective building name and room numbers (NO campus box numbers ever).  Mary would indicate on the order form that she is the one to contact for actual payment.

Upon receiving her order, our licensing coordinator builds a quote and submits that quote to Mary for her approval.  Mary MUST coordinate approval with the specific end-user purchasers in her department.  When we receive written approval back from Mary (via email - no verbal approval will be accepted), the order is finalized in our system, transmitted to the Adobe-authorized distributor and in turn, on to Adobe via an EDI link.

 Caution.  Once you approve an order, it is submitted almost instantaneously to Adobe.  It is impossible for the store to retrieve or stop the order once electronically-submitted and the purchaser will be held financially responsible for the purchase, so review carefully before approving any order.  Usually within 24-48 hours, Adobe will computer-generate an email to the end-user purchaser (the email address contained in our order) providing them with a temporary password and login name.  No sorry, there is no means available to the store to speed-up the ESD account set-up.  That is all Adobe-driven, so plan accordingly.  Upon receipt of the Adobe email notification, the end-user purchaser will be required to change their temporary password and login name to a permanent one.  After that, the purchaser can retrieve their install serial numbers and/or perform ESD (after the 24-48 delay for account set-up).  For security reasons, the CU Book has no involvement with passwords or granting/denial of access to the Adobe site.  That is purely a transaction between the purchaser and Adobe Systems.

Now a discussion of ESD processing.  All University of Colorado departmental customers can choose between ESD and the purchase of physical media OR BOTH.  The upside of ESD is that is free and the downside of physical media is that there is a charge for it and it must be dropped shipped direct to the end-user purchaser (it never ships to the CU Book Store) and the wait averages about seven days for receipt.  You can purchase media at anytime; not just at the time you order the licenses.  Also note that you don’t have to purchase multiple media sets to match multiple licenses of the same title.  Just one media set is required per software title and computer platform (i.e. one for Mac; one for Win).  However, you must obtain the serial numbers from the Adobe site in order to complete the installation process.  The store does not provide these.  The downside with ESD is that some customers have experienced access problems.  So far based upon customer feedback, those customers who are IT-professionals, those using Apple Mac systems, have experienced little if any difficulty.

Our caution to customers contemplating ESD is that unless you are thoroughly comfortable and familiar with FTP or ESD, we highly recommend that you seek knowledgeable ITS assistance.  At the Boulder Campus, you can get this support thru either your department-assigned Level Two CSR or by contacting ITS Bug Busters (or the ITS Help Desk at ext. 5-HELP).  Other CU Campuses should contact their local ITS support function.  Under no circumstances should you contact the CU Book Store.  While we are pleased to help with questions and concerns relative to the software licensing function and fulfillment (i.e. pricing, availability, requirements, how to place orders, etc.), but we cannot help you with technical matters.  Our software licensing operation is strictly limited to software licensing fulfillment; our staff is not qualified to offer technical support advice.  A safe bet although there is a charge and a wait for shipping, is to simply order the physical media.  The media charge may well be worth the elimination of possible frustration with using ESD.  However, the decision is yours.

 

08/15/2007 – Additional end-user purchaser guidance for performing Adobe Electronic Software (ESD) downloads.  In conjunction with advisories posted above, Adobe has offered additional information to assist customers contemplating ESD from the Adobe Licensing Web Site (LWS).  After the customer’s account has been established (account creation delay does not affect immediate serial number acquisition) AND PRIOR to logging in to their LWS account, the customer should:

 

• Empty their browser CACHE and COOKIE folders.
• Ensure their browser is configured to ACCEPT cookies.
• Ensure their browser is configured to ALLOW pop-up windows.
• Ensure they log in to their LWS account as the “License Holder”.

 

08/15/2007 – Adobe Master Collection (Mac and Windows OS) and Production Premium (Mac or Windows OS) have now been added to the Adobe Student Licensing pricelist and are available in the Buffalo Chip Computer Store for purchase.  Again, Adobe student licensing is ONLY available for purchase by CU students; NOT for faculty or staff individual-use (on a personally-owned computer).

Adobe Product Support for Microsoft Vista

For the latest information (as of March 7, 2007) regarding the use of Adobe software products with the new Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System, click here. (Requires Adobe Reader.)

Macromedia

Because of prior contractual agreement before the effective date of the merger of Macromedia with Adobe Systems, Macromedia-titled software licensing is still available through CU Connect, as well as the purchase of Macromedia FPP software directly through the store. Purchases of Macromedia software licensing is made via CU Connect (Boulder Campus) or via a modified on-line authentication capability (LDAP) made available through your respective campus IT department.   All software licensing is purchased on-line as mentioned and facilitated by our designated licensing agent, e-Academy.

The software licensing agreement permits University departments (all CU campuses are eligible) to purchase most all of the Macromedia software titles using their A-Card.  In the case of Macromedia software licensing, departments receive an electronic digital content download directly to their computer, as opposed to receiving the actual software media.  For individual faculty, staff, or students wishing to purchase for their own personal use, Macromedia limits the purchase to Macromedia Studio 8 only (as it applies to software licensing; you can still buy the FPP or shrink-wrapped product in the store.  It is just more expensive in that manner).

Should you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact the store licensing contract administrator at (303) 492-3429 during normal store business hours.