Adobe sues Forever 21 for stealing Photoshop

Company made it much harder to share copies of Photoshop and other software in 2013 — and many have turned to piracy to get hold of it

Customers walk and stand outside the first Forever 21 retail store in Lima, at Real Plaza Salaverry shopping mall October 1, 2014. (Reuters)

Adobe has accused US clothing chain Forever 21 of pirating Photoshop and other software.

The allegations were made in a California lawsuit, which said that Forever 21 had pirated Adobe software including Acrobat and Illustrator, as well as Photoshop. The lawsuit also contains claims of stealing from Autodesk and Corel, which makes Winzip and PaintShopPro.

Adobe provides version numbers, registration codes and dates for every time that Forever 21 allegedly used the stolen software. It claims that Forever 21 was told about the piracy but still “continued their infringing activities even after being contacted by Adobe”.

It and the other companies involve in the lawsuit don’t specify the amount of damages that they are seeking through the case. The case says that the alleged pirating has caused “repeated and irrepairable injury” and that it “would be difficult to ascertain the amount of money” that would give Adobe relief under law.

Adobe moved its products into the cloud in 2013, partly in an attempt to stop sharing of the product by giving every user logins. But it pushed many users to pirate the software instead, and in response Adobe has told employees to turn in companies that use illegally acquired versions, reports the Verge.