Adobe Threatens Microsoft With Suit

lseltzer writes "Adobe has threatened an antitrust suit against Microsoft, over PDF writing in Office 2007. Adobe wants Microsoft to separate the feature and charge extra for it. Microsoft has agreed to remove PDF writing, but won't charge extra." From the eWeek article: "In February, Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Chizen told Reuters he considered Microsoft to be the company's biggest concern. 'The competitor I worry about most is Microsoft,' Chizen said at the time. Adobe's PDF technology lets producers create and distribute documents digitally that retain designs, pictures and formatting. "

Comments

Summary incorrect.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Adobe isn't "Threatening Microsoft With a Suit" - Microsoft is speculating that Adobe will file an antitrust suit in Europe.

I think its FUD on MS's part: From Adobe's PDF Reference page:

The PDF Reference provides a description of the Portable Document Format and is intended for application developers wishing to develop applications that create PDF files directly, as well as read or modify PDF document content.

Unless MS extends PDF in a manner imcompatable with adobe's PDF. (but that would never happen)

Re:Summary incorrect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless MS extends PDF in a manner imcompatable with Adobe's PDF

I tend to agree, unless MS is mis-stating its case to garner early sympathy. Adobe Opened the PDF spec, unless they specifically reserved some portion as "trade secret" or the license restricted implementation of certain features. Adobe's been making money on their Portable Document Format for a decade, and if the product is doomed to slide into the non-profitable abyss, then they will need to adjust. Perhaps they could react by extending Acrobat into a full featured Word processor?

Re:So

[$RANDOMLUSER]

I think the real concern is spectacular PDF authoring a la Acrobat. And then there's the darndest thing - Microsoft applications seem to import other peoples formats real well, but they don't export worth a damn (if at all).

Re:What's sauce for Apple isn't sauce for Microsof

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

How is it that Apple is able to get away with allowing easy generation of PDFs

How is it that the MS fanbois leap to defend MS & Bash Apple without reading the article?

Adobe's threatened nothing. Microsoft is spreading FUD.

(and Apple uses PDF for a helluva lot more then what you've mentioned)

This was expected.

[MMC Monster]

This way, with microsoft "worried" about Adobe bringing a suit, Microsoft can introduce it's PDF replace technology.

The best thing Adobe can do is publically state that it would like MS Office to include an unadultered version of PDF output ability.

Re:In other news..

[windowpain]

Seriously, I was suprised years ago when free, legal products started showing up that can create PDFs (e.g., OpenOffice). If they're OK legally then Adobe is on mighty thin ice going after Microsoft.

And for you folks saying PDFs are a scourge of the Internet I agree. My pet peeve is links that open PDFs without warning, especially when they're incorporated into some kind of fancy button that doesn't even reveal the destination in the status bar on the bottome of the browser.

However, PDF is the de facto standard for distributing print-ready documents, and in that role, it's a Good Thing.