Adobe can't eat its cake and have it too

[Meta Blog]

By David from Truth, Justice, and the American Way,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Microsoft has just announced that it is removing PDF features from the next version of Microsoft Office because Adobe will sue it for antitrust violations if it does.

The key to the success of Adobe's PDF format is that it is free of any licensing restrictions, so anyone can implement PDF readers/writers. Microsoft's competitors have - both operating system vendors like Apple and Linux and competing office suites like Star Office and OpenOffice.org. However Microsoft isn't allowed to - not because Adobe has any legal right to prevent it, but because Adobe claims that it won't be able to compete with Microsoft if Microsoft makes PDF features available for free like most everyone else does. Adobe charges $449 for Adobe Acrobat - something it can only get away if Microsoft isn't allowed to compete with it. In effect, it is saying "anyone can use our format and compete with our products... unless you actually present a competitive challenge."

Microsoft expects Adobe to sue anyway because it will offer its own portable document format instead of selling Adobe’s products for them in its own software. (Meanwhile, anti-Microsoft advocates continue blasting it for rejecting "open standards.")

You can bypass Adobe and get free PDF creation software here.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000941.html