Will Adobe Sue Apple Over Flash?

An anonymous reader writes "Apple's iron-bound determination to keep Adobe Flash out of any iWhatever device is about to blow up in Apple's face. Sources close to Adobe tell me that Adobe will be suing Apple within a few weeks."

Comments

I'm conflicted

[ShadowRangerRIT]

In a battle between two vendors, one with a closed source, insecurt framework and the other with a closed platform, which side do I root for?

Re:I'm conflicted

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know.

Is there a way both of them can lose?

Re:I'm conflicted

[hhw]

You could just root for the lawyers.

Re:I'm conflicted

[bluesatin]

Personally I'd think that Adobe standing up for itself, and perhaps threatening Apple with some-sort of discontinuing of it's products on Macs may knock some sense into Apple; it'd probably be a good thing for Adobe in the long run.

If Apple obviously doesn't want to play nice with Adobe, why should Adobe keep providing Apple with a main selling feature of Macs? (The supposed fact they're for multimedia work).

Re:I'm conflicted

[Anonymous Coward]

Can Microsoft do that as well? It's their platform right? Oh, wait, it's Apple so it's fine now.

I don't know who should win in this one. Perhaps I'll wait till the docs are actually filed and can read the actual arguments and get actual law instead of some journalists opinion on what is.

Re:I'm conflicted

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The one with the closed source, insecure framework.

On an open platform, you are free to kick software vendors you don't like to the curb, in favor of ones you do, and in a granular fashion. On a closed platform, your decision is entirely deprived of granularity. It's a take-it-or-leave-it, all of it, thing.

In practice, the latter gives you much less power as a customer. Yes, you can not buy the closed platform; but that means that you cannot have any of it. Technologically bundled. On an open platform, you can pick and choose. Bundling(whether technological or contractual, and whether or not it meets the legal standards of Sherman) gives the vendor great power over you because, as long as one part of their product is good, they can be more or less assured that you will just have to suck down the bad parts. Open platforms, which are much less subject to bundling, barring particularly nasty contracts, subject individual parts of the system to competitive pressure.

Yes, flash sucks. Don't install it if you have the choice, use flashblock and a whitelist if you just need it in a few places; but never forget that the vendor who can choose for you, even if their taste is impeccable, is more dangerous than the vendor you can choose, even if they suck.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Old97]

Adobe didn't play nice with Apple in the 1990's and about killed it. Instead they sucked up to Microsoft. Turn about is fair play, but there are still good technical reasons why Flash is not good for devices like iPad and iPhone. They are not personal computers. They are devices and Apple is trying to squeeze the most out of them.

Re:I'm conflicted

[quantumplacet]

Do you know what a monopoly is? how can you possibly claim Apple has a monopoly in either one of those markets? most figures I've seen put them in the 15-20% market share for smartphones, and those numbers are probably high.

Re:I'm conflicted

[UnknowingFool]

Can Microsoft do that as well? It's their platform right? Oh, wait, it's Apple so it's fine now.

*Sigh* The rules change when you are a monopoly. MS has a monopoly. But that isn't the where they got into trouble because it's legal have a monopoly. It's illegal to use your monopoly powers to limit and thwart competition. That's where MS got into trouble.

Apple does not have a monopoly on smart phones. They don't even have the biggest marketshare in the US much less the world. RIM has the lead. Therefore monopoly rules do not apply.

Re:I'm conflicted

[somersault]

Actually, since Apple are pushing for H.264 video (which they part own the patents to AFAIK) in HTML5 you could say that they're offering a competing product.

Re:I'm conflicted

[YouWantFriesWithThat]

really? how did you get flash working on your Android phone? I have a Moto Droid running v2.1 and there is no flash support. Adobe is working on an Android Flash app or something, but there is no firm release date for it yet.

Re:I'm conflicted

[UnknowingFool]

If Apple obviously doesn't want to play nice with Adobe, why should Adobe keep providing Apple with a main selling feature of Macs? (The supposed fact they're for multimedia work).

The relationship between Adobe and Apple has been somewhat strained. Adobe for the most part made their name with Photoshop on Mac. Over the years they have slowly shifted their main focus to PC products instead and then going porting these products back to Mac. This is most evident with the Cocoa API Framework. Apple first released the APIs with OS X back in 2001. Up until CS5 was released on Monday, Adobe didn't use the API framework and instead relied on the Carbon Framework. That's 9 years to move frameworks. CS5 is also the first to be 64 bit as well. Apple might be a little tired of Adobe dragging its feet on development.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Nemyst]

The problem isn't so much that the iPhone/iPad shouldn't be running Flash due to performance/battery limitations, it's that Apple changed the rules without telling Adobe. It's as if you worked for 2 years on a shiny sports car only to be told, 3 days before you'd be able to take it on the road, that its category had been banned from using the roads ever again. I don't think Adobe would've been that pissed off had Apple told them BEFORE they started working on their Flash exporter.

I just don't know what Apple is thinking here though because as the GP said, Apple needs Adobe as much if not more than Adobe needs Apple. Adobe's products are a major reason Apple sells well in the first place.

Re:I'm conflicted

[purfledspruce]

Apple doesn't even have the #1 spot in smartphone manufacturers, I don't know where you get "monopoly" from. Maybe you're just an idiot.

Feb 2010 Smartphone Market share

Re:I'm conflicted

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

Denny Crane!

Re:I'm conflicted

[IntlHarvester]

Rather than Adobe dragging their feet, Apple fucked them over when they released developer docs for Carbon 64 and then later cancelled the entire API without any explanation. The Mac Zealot idea that there was some sort of roadmap or plan to transition everyone to Cocoa is simply factually incorrect. Apple just spontaneously did it and without warning their major development shops (even internally).

And I don't see how developers wasting their time with platform churn rather than adding new features and improving the product helps anyone. The platform-purity argument is bunk - the programs really aren't any better for using Cocoa as far as anyone can tell.

Re:I'm conflicted

[mrsteveman1]

Apple is the one pushing people toward HTML5 video

Re:I'm conflicted

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Adobe would bend over backwards to make flash work in the iPhone or iPad to Steve Job's satisfaction. Apple does not want flash on their platform for simple money reasons. If you go and play Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook on your iPad Apple does not make any money for that. If you buy We Rule from the app store they do get a cut of that along with the books, music, video etc.. They sell you through the built in store. They have you completely locked down to their app store and they collect revenue on all the content you buy. They lose some control and revenue with flash, now all of the sudden you can play tons of flash games use hulu etc... and they don't get paid for that.

Also if they let flash on the platform that means flash /flex apps would work on the the Android phones and the iPhone equally. They don't want that competition either they want developers locked in to their app ecosystem and make it difficult and or expensive for them to develop cross platform mobile titles.It's all bout control money and lock in. It's good business but it's anti competitive, predatory, and anti consumer.

To willfully put on blinders and pretend it has anything to do with app quality or user experience is idiotic. If flash/flex apps sucked on iPhone or iPad then it would not be a problem for Apple because no one would bother to use them.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Anonymous Coward]

"Monopoly" depends a lot on scope.

If we're considering the entire software industry, no, Apple doesn't have a "monopoly". But neither does anyone else at the moment. Neither did Microsoft in the 1990s and early 2000s.

If we're talking about the smartphone market, Apple still doesn't have a "monopoly". Likewise, Microsoft didn't and doesn't have a monopoly in the personal computer market.

If we're talking about the iPhone/iPad market, then Apple does indeed have a "monopoly". This scope is equivalent to that of the x86 PC market. It's a specific type of device, made by a relatively small number of manufacturers.

Now, you might say that it's nothing like the Microsoft monopoly of the x86 PC market. In reality, however, they're very similar situations. In fact, Apple's monopoly is much worse than Microsoft's ever was. Microsoft only ever directly controlled the software. Apple, on the other hand, controls the software, the hardware, and the distribution channel.

Even if Microsoft used their position to encourage the use of IE, they never went out of their way to explicitly "ban" Netscape Navigator, or Opera, or any other competing browser from running on Windows. Apple, on the other hand, has imposed very strict limitations on the apps that can run on their devices.

I'm sickened by Microsoft's products and behavior as much as any other reasonable person, but Apple has taken it to a new level that I don't think even Microsoft could ever achieve.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Rockoon]

Anti-Trust laws are not exclusive to monopolies.

Quite simply, any anti-competitive behavior may be grounds for an anti-trust case under section 1 of the Sherman act. It could certainly be construed that allowing a specific application constitutes an agreement between Apple and the applications developers, and that if Apple refuses to allow Flash-based alternatives to that application that it then is a conspiracy that restrains competition, and if that application is for sale then this agreement by definition restrains competitive commerce.

Re:I'm conflicted

[tehcyder]

The reason you need so many laws and lawyers is because without the threat of enforceable legal action, big corporations would simply act like gangsters.

Re:I'm conflicted

[rhsanborn]

Its the same reason the graph shows Apple instead of iPhone, Google instead of Android, and Microsoft instead of Windows Mobile, because RIM is the company that makes Blackberrys.

Re:I'm conflicted

[dkleinsc]

Sometimes laws are complex for useful and legitimate reasons. When the problem domain is a complex beast, the laws governing it are going to be complex. Just like software - complex problems yield complex solutions most of the time. And laws have to deal with things that are far more complicated than software, because software systems are generally deterministic whereas legal systems have to deal with human failings.

For instance, let's take the very simple crime of murder. You'd think it was straightforward - you kill somebody, you go to jail or death row. But it's not, because sometimes killing somebody is justified, sometimes it's an accident, sometimes it's an accident that required the killer to do a whole lot of extraordinarily stupid things, sometimes it's because the person wanted to die, etc. If you make the laws too simple, the judge will be stuck with the sentence for running someone over because your brakes failed (due to poor maintenance) being the same sentence as hiring a hit man to kill someone in their sleep.

In the case of the 1100 page health insurance reform law, it's as big as it is in large part because health care is a hugely difficult problem with both lives and billions of dollars on the line. Yes, there are also a lot of riders, special interest stupidity, loopholes, etc, but you can easily leave 300 pages for that stuff and still have a hugely complex bill.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Albanach]

I think this goes a long way beyond html5 video.

The newest release of Flash can apparently generate iPhone compatible applications. Apple rewrote their developer terms that require you to write your iPhone apps to run directly on the platform using a spcified language (i.e. objective C, C, C++ or Javascript). Using a cross-compiler to develop an application is prohibited.

This would have been a big market for flash, Apple have closed it off for no apparent reason other than to spite Adobe.

Re:I'm conflicted

[Captain Segfault]

hereby replacing the passage 'if of and thereof' with 'if of or thereof' followed by ..."

You might try actually reading the code rather than a diff.

Re:I'm conflicted

[peragrin]

So Apple is bad for annoucing a new transitional framework. Waiting six months and realizing that only a couple of companies would ever use it as itwas only designed to last a couple of years anyways?

Carbon was always supposed to be just a transitional framework. Something to help port from OS 9 to OS X. That like msft supporting win 16 frameworks in windows 7. Apple moves faster however during the ppc to intel transition those who used the coccoa frameworks transitioned a lot faster and easier than those who used the ppc designed carbon frameworks.

I would live to see msft mange a major processor shift. It would take 10 years.

Re:I'm conflicted

[careykohl]

Well the argument now isn't about allowing Flash, it's about allowing C/C++/Objective C applications that Adobe Flash CS5 exported from an application that was originally built with Flash. Apple had a case when they wanted to keep Flash off and keep everything C/C++/Objective C based, but if Adobe has managed to build a compiler that turns Flash into Objective C then Apple has no business rejecting apps simply because they were developed on software from a company they don't like.

Re:I'm conflicted

[jo_ham]

Apple itself doesn't use hardware acceleration (except on the 9400M chipset, and even then only very recently) for things like H.264.

Flash on Windows doesn't use hardware acceleration either (10.1 will), and the performance is better than the OS X version.

All of the graphics components of OS X are documented and other third party vendors seem to have no problems.

On2 even had a decent flash player built into its own app (used to use it to test flash videos with simple player templates that the software would make for you if you gave it a source video - it was much better than the flash plugin for the browser!)

Perhaps Adobe should have started here: http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_GraphicsImaging/

just like everyone else who wants to build something that displays something on the screen. I'll give you another hint: "nothing aside from blessed quicktime components can actually use video acceleration" is bullshit. Have you even read the documentation?

You have full (and extremely well documented) access to the graphics abilities of OS X as a developer.

The complaints about "acceleration" are almost all related to the lack of hardware decoding of H.264 in OS X, which is limited to the Nvidia 9400M chipset only. Even "blessed" Quicktime doesn't use hardware decoding of H.264 on OS X (unless you have a Mac with a 9400M). Hopefully this will be added soon.

Re:I'm conflicted

[God'sDuck]

if programmers wrote programs the way lawyers make laws, a

int x=0; while(x < 10) { printf ("%d\n", x); x++ }

would be written as a 20 pages of code, at least..

Yes, but you'd be paid $200 an hour to write it, and could expense the pork rinds. You may be on to something...

Re:I'm conflicted

[Magic5Ball]

I my applications are "originally written in" in neurons, which requires the use of intermediate code being expressed in various languages on whiteboards, notebooks, conversations, etc. before any code reaches C or other language. I guess I won't be writing any iPhone apps.

Alternatively, i could interpret the clause in the new agreement to mean that they don't want runtime translation/compilation to avoid sucking battery power when (their) tools are available to correctly compile once against the target.

At any rate, I don't imagine that it will be long before someone distributes the Flash player as a bunch of (obfuscated) C classes or libraries or some such (perhaps as an on-line service) which a developer could then paste into Apple's developer tools, along with a byte-code or other pastable representation of the Flash program which would then be compiled by the allowed Apple tools into a native binary.

Re:I'm conflicted

[metamatic]

I doubt Adobe are silly enough to cut off their software to Apple users.

They don't have to cut off their software entirely. They can just make their Mac versions half-assed ports of the Windows versions.

Oh, wait, they already did that... Well, they can release them months after the Windows versions.

Oh, wait, they already did that too... Well, they can make them even more half-assed, and maybe kill a few of the smaller apps on the Mac, like Premiere.

Oh, wait, they already did that for a while. Gosh, can't think why Apple isn't more enthusiastic about keeping Adobe happy...

Re:I'm conflicted

[pablodiazgutierrez]

Apple makes a nice amount from app sales, which they control. If an independent framework becomes popular, this opens the door to someone else controlling the flow of money. I don't like either position, but I understand them in their twisted minds.

Re:I'm conflicted

[John Whitley]

Apple made a hard decision to cut support for a legacy framework, with broad impact to many of its developers. This very trait is often lauded in comparisons to Microsoft, where many people would dearly love for terrible legacy frameworks and APIs to be deprecated (or even just 'nuked from orbit'). Moreover, Apple isn't obligated to do any work to make Adobe's life easier.

If you want to continue silly tit-for-tat analyses of such things, Adobe screwed Apple over a decade earlier by refusing to port anything to Cocoa -- sticking with Carbon in the first place. This Roughly Drafted article provides more of the historical color.

Lord of War Quote

[Monkeedude1212]

This reminds me of a line from a movie...

"But in the Iran-Iraq war you sold guns to both sides."

"Did you ever consider that I wanted both sides to lose?"

We should be pointing out more reasons for the guys to sue each other than just a petty Flash dispute, we should arm them with the means to sue each other into oblivion!

Than, if my calculations are correct, the lawyers will have made enough to buy new yachts, bolstering the economy slightly. It's really a win for everybody all around.

Re:Lord of War Quote

[way2slo]

I personally feel that Apple should sue itself.

Specifically the Quick Time team should sue the iPhone and iPod OS team for not putting Quick Time support in the OS. Seriously, why must we all convert our Quick Time movies? Is it really that hard to support their own format on their own device?

"It's Apple's device"

[MikeRT]

"It was Microsoft's operating system." Oh, right, I forgot, under modern antitrust laws you're allowed to be a total anti-competitive asshole until you become the 800lb gorilla. Part of me is hoping that Adobe wins and takes Apple to the cleaners because I don't buy the hypocrisy here that Apple should be able to get away with behavior that would have launched an online World War 3 if done by Microsoft.

Re:"It's Apple's device"

[mcgrew]

Oh, right, I forgot, under modern antitrust laws you're allowed to be a total anti-competitive asshole until you become the 800lb gorilla.

These "modern" anti-trust laws are a century old, and were instituted because of abuses by 800 lb gorillas like Standard Oil. Microsoft has a monopoly, Apple doesn't; that's the difference, and it's a difference that matters.

Re:"It's Apple's device"

[mcgrew]

incorrect.

In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos / (alone or single) + polein / (to sell)) exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.[1][clarification needed] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods.[2]

You don't need 100% of a market to have a monopoly.

The point... I'm missing it.

[dtml-try MyNick]

Adobe is going to sue for what?

Company A doesn't want to use technology developed by company B. Good luck with that.

Granted, Apple is quite aggressive and loud when it comes to Flash but that is still no reason to sue them for not using it. Their device, their technology.

..and as I said on a previous thread.

[jcr]

Louis Gerbarg has written up a very good explanation of the issues involved.

Quote:

Adobe is a large company with a significant, and complicated, relationship with Apple. They have frequent high level contacts and meetings. Adobe has known for quite some time about Apple's desire not to have Flash on the iPhone. There is no doubt in my mind that if they asked Apple to bless this they were rebuffed, and if they didn't ask the only reason they didn't was because they knew Apple would say no. In either event, they announced the product to their customers and sold them on an idea they were not in a position to deliver, hoping Apple would be unwilling to piss off developers by not fulfilling Adobe's promises. They tried to force Apple's hand by putting Apple in a position where in order stop the Flash they would have to do it publicly in front of Adobe's users. That was a bad call on Adobe's part.

Read the whole thing.

-jcr

Re:..and as I said on a previous thread.

[virgilp]

It's very good, except that it's wrong. Apple did know about the iPhone packager, of course (there are approved apps in the AppStroe built with the prerelease versions of it, and Adobe has been bragging about it for a while) - and they did nothing to hint they would prevent it, up till the very last second.
(banning "interpreted code" does not count, the iPhone packager did not create interpreted code)

TFA wasn't clear

[mcgrew]

What grounds are they suing under? Breach of contract? Why should Apple be forced to use Adobe's stuff if they don't want to?

Re:TFA wasn't clear

[Hatta]

There's no information. These are anonymous sources close to an anonymous coward. Don't take it any more seriously than graffiti on the bathroom wall.

Re:TFA wasn't clear

[Anonymous Coward]

The short version: Apple is telling developers that they can't buy Adobe *tools* to produce *native* Apple-platform applications.

The long version:

1. Adobe Flash is buggy and crashes a lot. Steve Jobs also seems to have a personal beef with it for some reason.
2. Apple says, "No flash on our iAnything platforms."
3. Adobe says, "Please?"
4. Apple says, "No!"
5. Adobe says, "Okay, we've made a compiler that takes a Flash script and compiles it to an iAnything native application, using HTML 5, Apple's C-variant, and Apple's API."
6. Apple says, "We've added a clause to our developer contract that says that developers are not allowed to use anything that translates code from one language to another for the iAnything platform. You have to use OUR tools, and you must write in OUR language from the start, or you - the developer - cannot play with us."
7. Adobe says, "..."

Re:TFA wasn't clear

[corbettw]

Don't take it any more seriously than graffiti on the bathroom wall.

Don't disparage the usefulness of a bathroom graffito. I met my ex-girlfriend Jenny that way.

WTF Slashdot?

[SpeZek]

This is actually a "story"?

It's literally some anonymous guy on the internet saying something.

Re:WTF Slashdot?

[ladadadada]

Well, not really.

"Some anonymous guy" is Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and he's a regular writer for IT World.

And the anonymous submitter would appear to be one "smlynch" according to the URL to TFA. Sure, it's not much, but it's not exactly anonymous.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Haha.

[bluefoxlucid]

Hah. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Use our product! On your product! Without paying us! Or we'll sue you!

What next? Microsoft suing a suddenly popular PC manufacturer because they've completely abandoned Windows and only ship with Ubuntu Linux, or an "advanced" option out of a list of free OSes including Fedora, CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD?

Re:It would be cheaper to fix the damned product.

[binarylarry]

Although I'm not going to argue that flash is extremely stable, I think this is much more about platform lock-in than any particular defect in Flash.

Apple didn't ban Flash, they banned anything that wasn't written specifically for their platform.

Adobe could release an absolutely amazing and flawless version of Flash 11 tomorrow and it would be just as banned, if not even more zealously, because it would represent a stronger competitor to Apple's own platform.

Re:What's good for the goose is good for the gande

[argent]

Not to mention telling Apple "No, we're not going to port Photoshop to Yellow box (even though it's based on our Display Postscript technology)". It was a nasty one-two punch that could have put Apple out of business.

Got to side with Apple on this one...

[rimcrazy]

They have a platform worth billions. Tens of billions. They have chosen to make it closed. You as a consumer can chose to use there platform or not, that is up to you. For them, to potentially put the fate of a multi-billion dollar product in the potential hands of a company that makes development content for this multi-billion dollar platform and not control it is suicide.

You can argue the merits of closed or open but in this case the point is moot. iPhone is closed and Apple wants it that way. They are not going to put their fate in the hands of Adobe. The only legs Adobe may have to stand on is if they were lead to believe that their platform was to be accepted (written contract or verbal) and then at the 11th hour to be shafted? Well then maybe they have a case.

Hey, I was the engineering dept. manager back at VLSI Tech back when chip sets was a good business. Intel decided, rightly so, that they could not put the fate of their CPU's in the hands of 3rd party chip set vendors. In ONE product cycle (after they finally figured out how to make them) they took 90% of the PC market with their chip sets. Did it hurt? Yea, it hurt. We went from $250M/yr to $25M/yr in 12 months. I lost my job along with a host of others. That being said, I still can't fault Intel for what they did. Quite frankly I'm surprised it took them as long as it did. The case in point with Apple and Adobe is no different.

Re:Seriously?

[Ukab the Great]

After having to mess with J2ME, Qtopia, Symbian, and all the other idiots who basically put the iPhone where it is today, I find being forced to use XCode and Objective-C instead of other tools akin to being being forced to only fuck supermodels instead of lunch ladies.

You know, Xcode is free...

[4iedBandit]

What's stopping Adobe from porting Flash to iPhone, iPad, iPod?

Oh wait, they would have to make it not suck.

Flash is cool. I too have played some great flash games. But when my system goes from idle to 100% and all I did was open a web page with a flash based add, something is wrong. Why does something that takes up no more than a tenth of the web page cause my system to go to 100% cpu?

Everyone thinks Apple is the big bad wolf here. The reality is, Adobe has every opportunity to port flash and make it an outstanding piece of software. Instead they want to settle for good enough. Good enough is what has given us software that works, but requires ever increasing amounts of processor power, memory and disk space just to run at an acceptable level.

Processor, memory and more importantly battery life, are not unlimited in a mobile device. Apple is the gatekeeper so yes it does appear that they are the bad guys, but the reality is that Adobe has had every opportunity to make Flash better. Make it use less CPU, less memory and make it world class software. Instead, they've chosen to whine and complain about it.

Did Opera whine and complain about Apple's rules and how it was going to hurt them? Or did they innovate?

Adobe has every opportunity to make Flash function so well that Apple would have no problem letting it exist on the iProducts. Apple has provided the tools to write code for the iPlatforms. Adobe has access to those tools just like everyone else. The only thing stopping Adobe is Adobe. Apple has no further responsibility to make some other companies product work.

Re:apple needs to be sued over there app store loc

[UnknowingFool]

*Sigh* So when you bought your iPod Touch did it not say Windows PC or Mac OS X only right? It was fairly clear on my box that there was no Linux support.

Apple basically sets their stuff up so that if you buy 1 piece of Apple equipment you're going Apple all the way or the whole thing will break. There's no TECHNICAL reason for that situation, and the artificial creation of such a situation should be regulated IMHO.

No there's no technical reason. Just practical ones. Apple doesn't want to support Linux. Many companies don't. That's their choice. You changing your OS is not the responsibility of Apple.

I'm not conflicted

[mschaffer]

I think it's a no brainer. Support Adobe.
Then, maybe, someone will attack Adobe about their platform.
When that happens, support them.

Remember...the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

Re:I'm not conflicted

[sqlrob]

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less