eg upgrading to windows 10, and it no longer works, and it wouldn't be reasonable to expect software that was programmed over 10 year ago, to also work on the most modern OS.

The only time limit should be based on the customers own hardware and software not being compatible. Also this is a owned perpetual license and not a cloud based subscription, so there is no set time limit/ expiry date on it, so customers should be able to use it for as long as they want. However firstly there wasn't any grace period to download the activation fix, because customers weren't notified of it's existence, unless they have tried to install it in the last year or so.

As there was no grace period, Adobe should just provide the non activated version to those owners when they request it, as all perpetual license owners paid to install and use the software for as long as they need it on compatible hardware and software,

Not everyone uses the newest computers and OS's, and infact the newer versions probably don't work on older PCs and OS's anyway. Without notificton, there was no grace period, as no CS3 license owner would know that they had turned off the activation server, until they needed to reinstall it again, and very few customers would frequent these forums either until they have a problem. The real question is why didn't they notify all CS3 license owners that they had turned off teh actviation server, and they had this actviation free program, so all customers would have a grace period in order to download the fix? You did even say that community volunteers also weren't notified when Adobe removed the ability to download the activation free fix. I keep seeing owners of CS3 licenses popping up on here and complaining that they are unable to activate their licenses, which indicates none of them were notified by Adobe that they had turned off their acvtiation server and that they had an activation free program, and that cusomters needed to download the software fix.

Goo adobe photoshop cs3 free download