It's how I did. Now I'm a professional frontend developer with adequate Adobe skills and a license paid for by the company that frequently come in handy on the job.
Didn't this also use to be the case with MS Windows and MS Office? I always thought they were so easy to crack, and Microsoft was so prone to turn a blind eye to pirate copies at home, because this led to employees familiar with their products at the office. And they did go after pirated software at the office.
Microsoft gives everything for free to students, except office.
Check with your university. This shall includes hundreds of software, all editions of Windows both 32 bits and 64bits, as well as all editions of Visual Studio Ultimate, plus databases and other tools.
They were easy to pirate up until CS6, nothing more than a keygen (or pregenerated key) and a couple blocks in /etc/hosts.
After that they really cracked down on piracy, and at the same time offer the CC subscription decently cheap (50$ a month) that honestly the risk of malware isn't worth it any more.
So one can pay $700 a year to Adobe or pay 1-2 month of student rent for that year. I'd say Adobe is pushing hard for piracy trying to get blood from a stone (students).
$50/month is the full price for the most complete bundle. Adobe has a student price at a lower rate that I can't be bothered to look up just as you couldn't be bother to look up before making your comment.
And even the 50$ - that's about the price of getting wasted once a month which most students can afford. The key difference between CS and CC is that you don't have to up-front hundreds/thousands of dollars.
More like they eventually join mid-size plus companies which Adobe tracks down to make them pay for their photoshop (if they detect it on a company network they will reach out). Or they simply just pay for it because they can and/or are professional/law abiding people.
Adobe doesn't spend copyright enforcement time on individuals much.
Me too. I distinctly remember the warez group editing the startup image of PS 6, which had the code name Venus in Furs. Apparently that was 20 years ago!
Anyhow, I know that much of my early software license transgressions resulted in actual software licenses.
...and now you know why Adobe products are so easy to pirate. Young pirates turn into loyal product users and customers.