Adobe Nabbed for Piracy!

by The Compulsive Splicer

2001-12-23 12:28:36

The Corporate Fuck

After playing the heavy on piracy issues all over the place, Adobe has been barred from distributing or selling InDesign 1.5 because it contains.... unlicensed software!

Sklyarov fans should take particular note of the irony here. After grandstanding around pretending to be America's Piracy Watchdogs(tm) and wagging their fingers at users who might get sloppy in their licensing (remember "Don't Copy That Floppy?" Adobe.) the folks at Adobe had no trouble with stealing other people's software.

In fact, one might even say they stole it with impunity. Adobe signed a licensing agreement with Trio Systems stating that they would not distribute Trio's C-Index software with InDesign, then turned around and decided that they could make a bit more money by disregarding their contract.

This isn't piracy on the level of "don't copy that floppy" or lending a game to your neighbor. This puts Adobe on a level with those who burn CD-Rs of MS Office and photocopy the license and sell it as though it were the real thing. Although Trio has made no indication that they will go after users of InDesign 1.5, Adobe has in fact made every purchaser of their software a user of illegal software. Adobe should not only be prevented from distributing this software any further, they should be forced to refund the purchase price of each and every license of InDesign 1.5 they've sold.

I guess what comes around goes around, but it should be noted that the unrepentant Adobe continues to sell and distribute InDesign outside of the U.S., where they claim the U.S. courts have no jurisdiction.

Check it out yourself

burton@pigdog.org