You can download the installer from an Adobe server, and Adobe also provides the key to activate it, with no payment or authentication required. Nowhere does it

You can download the installer from an Adobe server, and Adobe also provides the key to activate it, with no payment or authentication required. Nowhere does it say you need to have paid for it back when they sold it. In my opinion, this means they're officially giving it away for free. FWIW you could also consider it abandonware because, again, it's not sold any more so you can't pay for it even if you wanted to.