The umpteenth product that dies, and not for lack of funds, since the company that bought it from its creator to carry on its development is one of the richest in the world.

In the past before developing software you thought about it, they were investments and time, while in the internet generation you shoot in the pile, hoping that something will work, or, enough, you close shack and puppets and who you saw you saw, who invested time and money (little in this case) in their product is seen abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything in this case is seen abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything is abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything is abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything in this case is abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything is abandoned (already from 2016) and today is indicated first by email and then on the site that must be requested a definitive key because everything is abandoned (since 2016) will disappear.

In my computer life (since 1982) I have seen many software, many software houses born and die, for bad choices, for lack of users and therefore funds, for obsolescence, but the most embarrassing thing is the ease today in which you create products, you collect hundreds of thousands of users and then… everything closes because it was an experiment, because they were not able to manage the investment income relationship, because a manager leaves and who happens decides in spite of closing and canceling what he has achieved, I wrote spite, that word that usually associates with children, but that I have encountered as behavior in fifty years from the board of directors , because age does not mature, unfortunately….

Today the creation of so many Renting systems involve such damage, because in reality the moment you accept the rental of the limited-time software (the purchase of the license was unlimited at the discretion of the manufacturer, there is no unlimited purchase without clauses), you are agreeing to put a loop around your neck much narrower than you imagine, you are taking your files hostage to people who do not care about your work , nor that you can deliver or complete your work, and above all they have no interest that you can keep those files over time.

I explain better, if you try to open a project 5 years ago, depending on whether you work in the 3D, 2d, video etc you could have great surprises, I have projects 25 years ago, which at the time I stored with copies of the software to make sure that I reopened in the same way, and today archive also with a virtual image of the operating system , because that can be a problem too.

Today legally it is not possible because if they close the server that activated the software (from cs4 onwards) technically you can no longer use, you have to resort to illegal techniques to return to use or convert files that we created.

I know someone might say I can open them with new versions of the software… not always… for example all the projects of premiere pro – premiere pro cs3 I can not open them, this because the gentlemen only developed under Windows the program, and the modern mac version by error in opening that type of file… a text file, an xml whose handling and parsing is a third week of programming (I taught it in early 2000), but especially if that part of the project import code is present in the win version, it should only be added to the mac version, not even created from scratch. 
Not only that, opening it from the new version will give several errors, while opening "in stages" from intermediate versions (cs3-cs6-cc2014-cc2019) will not by errors. The acronyms mentioned are not random but are turning points of package development, where they have changed certain components and structures in the program that cause errors in reading the structure, which as I wrote before remains an XML structure, a text… something very trivial to manage for a programmer.

Or… this is the error given by 2020, and I can only open it with a 2014, which officially I can not have installed, as from mining emails sent by Adobe because they do not want to pay Dolby licenses… error that I solved by installing as a demo the cc2014, too bad that if I had not had the installer, that almost no one has because Adobe hid the download of such installers I would have stuck, and the company that asked me to update the old project (in the documentary is normal even after 15 years) would not have commissioned me the work.

Do we give some examples of forced obsolescence?

In the field of 3D many software change the rendering engines, change the parameters as they act in combined, so even if I open on Maya, Max a scene 5 years ago I could have some big problem, I mention these that were licensed an engine (Mental ray) that now no longer have, because the license is back in Nvidia, and now they use Arnold Arnold , and having both switched to subscription-only models, it becomes very difficult to open the old scenes… And you can't buy or rent the old version… the only solution is the illegal route, which is embarrassing since it is software that paid you thousands of euros per license.

Let's go into the field of 2D animation, I open a project made with the 2014 of AfterEffects, it's slow and I do the conversion of the project in 2019, the save, check that it's in place and everything works, too bad that the scene on the old computer took 35 minutes, on the new takes 17 hours to render and they are disaffected all colors because they changed somewhere the management of the color space

Let's go into the video montage, I have already talked about the debachè on the Dolby codec, I open a scene two years ago and I find myself without audio, because the camera was running with codec dolby AC3, and despite Adobe flagging the fact that with the subscription we could install all the versions we wanted until the CS5, actually now it is restricted everything to 2018 without codec dolby because they do not want to get in agreement with Dolby that rightly having seen yeast in the way sales of the suite, they wanted to re-negotiate the economic agreements.

Let's go within the web, how many software has changed from the current Animate, which comes from the ashes of the second Flash, the first was an animation program, the second purely for programmers, alienating so many people from the program, eliminated for mile reasons and reborn as a phoenix from the ashes again as an animation program.

Opening old projects or files is not a wish but a real necessity, some example :

  • Remastering products, from sd to FHD or 4k, having 3D sources is better to rerender in quality than to do a brutal scaling of the material
  • Repertory material acquired in the codecs of the time and often lost the original masters, much of the documentary filmmaker's work is based on that
  • "I often have to fish for products 4-6 years ago to modify and distribute them on other country markets," he says.
  • creating new products from the old, and starting from scratch when you've already made libraries is silly

Unfortunately, today's world is superficial and limited, things are done to make them last, but those who produce content would rather do something that remains, otherwise that they produce to do?

Of course I imagine from the choir to hear the voices of those who say… "It is your responsibility to keep files and projects open" "in large companies… "

I stop all these rumors citing big companies like Dreamworks, that to make the 3D version of Shreck have converted the renderings and did not re-render them because they could not properly reopen the scenes from new machines and new software, while doing a lot of work at home, and the costs of reopening the old scenes, redoing the compositing etc exceeded the 18 million dollar cost of the conversion from 2d to 3D.

However, if those who develop codecs stop developing them or are acquired by another company (main concept from adobe), if the operating systems change support for external codecs (both Apple and Microsoft) by closing the installation of external codecs, if a company decides to no longer support versions of old projects (not because it is difficult to read them but only translate structures and effects/ plugins from the old to the new) we content creators can do little.

In the new millennium there are new professional figures who deal precisely with the migrations of projects and products from one century to the next and will become increasingly important to save the past.