Peter Krogh dug into the Lightroom terms of service and discovered that the software doesn’t completely shut down if your subscription lapses:
But other than Develop and Map, everything else works. You can make new catalogs, add new photos, add keywords, make collections, books, web galleries, prints, slideshows, exports, published copies… Basically, you have Lightroom LE. For free, if you want it.
This is good news for people concerned that Adobe would lock their photo libraries in Lightroom if they stopped subscribing, or if the servers locked them out due to a glitch (like the one that kept Creative Cloud down for 24 hours).
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 