Most Popular
| Top Stories | Commented | Featured |
Weekend Open Forum: Have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet? What is there to like/not? featured
Tech Tip of The Week: Turn Off your Display Using a Windows Shortcut and More featured
Netflix PS3 streaming arrives tomorrow
Dell's ultra-thin Adamo XPS to ship soon for $1,799
Windows 7 crushed Vista in early launch sales
AMD and PC vendors delay products amid GPU shortage
TS Community
| User Gallery | Recent Discussion |
 Deepnets Phishing Alarm by luvhuffer |  my systems by usb1 |
 JANE by nicholas_t |  Call of Duty 4 8400GS PCI by Tha General |
TechSpot RSSInformation Technology
Adobe takes Microsoft to court over Office 2007
Yet another lawsuit in the IT world, this time with the small going up against the big. Adobe is taking on Microsoft in the courts, in an antitrust lawsuit surrounding the ability of Office 2007 to write PDF files. Particularly, Adobe wants Microsoft to turn the PDF writing into a purchaseable module, separate from the Office suit itself. While Microsoft is willing to remove the feature entirely, they are not willing to turn it into a pay item. Unless you use open source software, writing PDFs or using advanced PDF writing features is something you have to buy a professional suite from, such as Acrobat Professional. The PDF format is used widely around the world, and having the ability to create your own with a software suite that's likely to come shipped with a new PC would be appealing to many.
User Comments (8)
Post a comment| nathanskywalker on June 2, 2006 1:27 PM | One more law suite, that's all i have to say.
|
| spike on June 2, 2006 1:51 PM | I don't think Adobe really has a leg to stand on. The .pdf file format may be their monopoly in the commercial market, but it's also available freely in the open source community - they don't own the format, and other software already writes and uses it. Microsoft have every right to use the format in its office software.
|
| DragonMaster on June 2, 2006 3:03 PM | but it's also available freely in the open source community That's why Linux distributions and OpenOffice support PDF conversion. I just don't know why Corel WordPerfect has PDF support, which is not a separate module.
|
| smtkr on June 2, 2006 4:22 PM | Originally posted by spike: it's also available freely in the open source community Exactly. Selectively enforcing IP rights will kill Adobe in court
|
| canadian on June 3, 2006 5:41 PM | It would be nice if Adobe won, stupid microsoft -_-
|
| westley52 on June 4, 2006 3:33 PM | "it's also available freely in the open source community" "Microsoft have every right to use the format in its office software." That is true, AS LONG AS Microsoft open sources their Office software.
|
| eko on June 5, 2006 4:46 AM | Correct, westley52... They have too much money already, if they want to do something good, how about they sell Office 2007 package for 50 bucks next week ?! I'll buy it ! At these prices, they are ripping off everyone!
|
| Phantasm66 on June 5, 2006 4:41 PM | Microsoft's Jones said he hopes Adobe realizes it has made a mistake and, "that they probably shouldn't try to sue people for using an open file format." Microsoft has pledged not to go after anyone that implements its Office Open XML formats, which are currently being certified as a standard by Ecma. Maybe Office Open XML will wind up taking over from PDF, i.e Netscape and IE style?
|
