Report: Adobe Prepping Lawsuit Against Apple

[godnodog]

Although I agree that flash sucks,but I also think that Apple is getting out of control, everyday I get more convinced that it is only a question of time until a EU lawsuit is on the way.

No offense but Apple produts are for "fashion nerds", regardless of their quality, their attitude and false advertisements (Pc Vs Mac) are just of stupid people (I know... it´s business but still.... )

 

[apmyhr]

[citation][nom]summitflier[/nom]What are they suing for? Apple refuses to put Flash on their hardware... oh MY.. that IS a serious offence. I build over 100 websites a year, NONE of them use flash. Big deal...[/citation]
I hate Flash and every other Adobe product. But this is not about Flash. This is about Apple trying to use their market position to destroy a competitor. I don't mind that only Objective-C programs can run on iPhone. Adobe's CS5 would allow Flash developers to compile their programs into Objective-C in order to run on the iPhone. Apple changing their SDK license to block this by not allowing cross-platform compilers is pure evil and should be stopped. Its bad enough for a company to have strict requirements on the code that runs on their platform. I don't think a company should be able to decide HOW you produce that code.

 

[coolgamer512]

Go adobe!

 

[danimal_the_animal]

Photo-shop and MAC give me a BREAK!

Mac needs to EMULATE photo-shop to run the WINDOWS .dll files

HAHA

TAKE THAT APPLE!!!!!!!!!

 

[proxy711]

HTML5 is the future, flash has only lasted this long because no other competition has been released look how lazy adobe has been no gpu accelerated flash or 64bit browser support. After all these years how can they not have those out by now? oh wait they are lazy.

I don't own any apple products so I'm far from a fanboy but i have to say apple telling adobe to go to hell makes me respect apple for doing so. By them abandoning flash they just accelerate HTML5's development.

 

[jjchmiel78]

I cannot believe how pro apple these replies are. If Microsoft even said they were thinking about doing something like this, they would be fined a few hundred million and everyone would be up here saying how great Apple and Linux are what evil pieces of bleep Microsoft is. Apple is getting away with way to much. Close off one company from development and then the next and the next until all is left is your own. This if pulled off successfully is a monopoly. Apple would be just as big or bigger pile if they followed the same rules as Microsoft.

 

[kingssman]

what is apple's problem with Flash? I mean flash isn't really that bad.. "newgrounds" youtube? anyone?

 

[falchard]

lol good one, talk about taking away the only reason people would contemplate Apple for business and the main thing people using on Apple machines.
If Steve was serious about not getting an Apple to crash, he should also remove Microsoft and The Finder. Ohh and the clock might cause instability too. You can't have a successful computer if you keep reducing the usability of your machine so it won't crash.

 

[hotroderx]

This is getting old... Company need to start working together or start face planting. What happened to lets work together to make a better product for the consumer instead of all this bicker and suing and fighting


Apple is a great example of this. Lets be Elitist lets charge extra for products that really are not all that new or innovative and lack core features (only really Original thing apple has came up with is the Ipod). Take the Ipad lets break it down into its core features. Its either a Cell phone with a extra large screen and no dial capability or its a Net-book that cant multitask so why are people flocking to this item like fly's to honey and why is Apple not willing to play fair with other company's it really simple its image

Apple has built it self up on a your not leet unless you use apple products and we are leet cause we set the standard. Which isn't true apple doesn't set the standard neither does Microsoft. Consumers and Big Business set standards... Sony learned this the hard-way back in 80's with batamax or what ever it was called that was there answer to VHS wanna know why it face planted cause consumers choose VHS (yes could be argued because of porn but we still choose with our wallets). Right now company's with


poor business practices are walking a thin line especial with today's economy with so many people out of work and money getting tighter and tighter people are gonna start to really rethink there spending habits and maybe being elite isn't so great when you cant put food in your elite mouth cause u had to pay a premium mark up for someones Elite Gear that don't even work with half the stuff you already own.


This is more or less directed at all the company as of late with poor business practice

 

[HSuke]

As much as I hate Apple, Adobe flash licenses and software are so ridiculously expensive. I'm secretly hoping Apple will bring Adobe down.

 

[Guest]

Since source code is free speech, protected by the First Amendment, Apple is restricting free speech by prohibiting the development of apps using "an intermediary translation or compatibility layer tool."...FWIW

 

[zachary k]

woot! lets go adobe. flash on my iphone, yes plz! next up, stopping auto redirects to mobile sites!

 

[climber]

So why does apple "have to" allow any software developer to build software for apple OS's or products. They shouldn't be forced to have anything on their platform they choose not to have on their products. Now I am a PC man myself, I do have a first gen iPod nano and an iPod Touch 2G, and yes not being able to watch some videos or use some streaming technologies on my iPod over wifi isn't ideal, but forcing anyone to do anything, seems wrong to me.

 

[vant]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]what the hell? they are actually trying to sue someone for not using there product? only in the USA[/citation]

Sums it up.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]apmyhr[/nom]I hate Flash and every other Adobe product. But this is not about Flash. This is about Apple trying to use their market position to destroy a competitor. I don't mind that only Objective-C programs can run on iPhone. Adobe's CS5 would allow Flash developers to compile their programs into Objective-C in order to run on the iPhone. Apple changing their SDK license to block this by not allowing cross-platform compilers is pure evil and should be stopped. Its bad enough for a company to have strict requirements on the code that runs on their platform. I don't think a company should be able to decide HOW you produce that code.[/citation]
I too despise flash as it's a horrible security hole (while I do like illustrator and photoshop), but I think we're talking to deaf ears. I thought I've stated, relatively clearly, as have you, twice, that this isn't about running flash on the iphone. This is about apple targeting adobe for creating a new multiplatform compiler that allows devs to develop a flash app and an iphone app relatively simultaneously.
These compilers are not new and have been around for quite some time. The argument that only garbage apps are created using these toolkits is nonsense as several of the most popular games used these kits in their development. Heck, even some of the apps demonstrated by Jobs himself used these tools (such as Lua) in their development.
So, up until now, these devkits have been OK to use for years, but suddenly are not just as Adobe is about to release CS5 Flash that has the capability to convert things created in it into iPhone executable code, give me a break. Adobe's CS5 Flash isn't the only one hurt by this, all the other toolkits that have been around and OK to use before are now too verbotten, but Adobe is the one standing up and saying calling Apple on it.
That said, on a side note, I'm fairly convinced CS5 is powered by the heart of a little orphan boy. Based on the demos I've been seeing regarding Photoshop CS5's "content-aware" feature, that's the only logical conclusion I can make as to how it even works. So, I'm pretty sure Adobe is evil too, but in this case I think Apple is being a little more evil.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]regulas[/nom]Never happened to me over the last 6years on 4 different Macs.[/citation]
Then you have been very lucky, as I have an extreme hatred of the spinning beachball of death. At least a bluescreen gives me some code as to why or what crashed, allowing me to fix it. Whereas the beachball problem results in me having to do a lot of guessing.

Of course, I hated the old 'cannot eject CD as the drive is still in use' problem much, much more. Thankfully, that's been fixed now.

In the end, all computers suck regardless of the OS

 

[hispeed120]

[citation][nom]sinfulpotato[/nom]Adobe just needs to stop supporting apple all together. Say good buy to people buying macs for photoshop and the like.Nail in the coffin for apple.[/citation]

But who needs Photoshop when you can use iPhoto?

/end sarcasm

 

[bravura]

How is this different from consoles being a closed platforms? Just like PS3 has a devkit not available to the public (and for arbitrary purpose), iPad has now an SDK with restrictions.

 

[Guest]

People....Apple is less than 8 percent of the market. Why all the hate for the minority?

 

[daeros]

I know most of the people on toms don't use macs (at least not much), but I can tell you flash is the single biggest headache I have on all my apple computers (all laptops, yay for battery life and stupendous wifi reception!). My Phenom II 910 HTPC and i7 920 gaming machines have no such problems. Hell, my mother's old-as-crap PD 820 will play hulu in hi-def without problems. I would be more upset by Apple getting flash out of the house if it actually worked on macs anywhere close to how well it worked on pcs.

 

[bravura]

Also, Adobe had years to release proper flash plugins for Mac and Linux... How long should one tolerate instable buggy software?

 

[zybch]

[citation][nom]JamesSneed[/nom]Flash? HTML 5 should be making a big splash soon and in flash it will be gone.[/citation]

HTML5 does NOT have the same capabilities as flash. In fact its pretty much ONLY good for streaming video, and that is rarely what websites emply flash for.

 

[spoofedpacket]

[citation][nom]Dingdongbell070[/nom]@sinfulpotato, if adobe stops supporting macs then adobe's stock price will drop significantly. At that point if apple wanted to they could just buy adobe with cash..Not really a nail in the coffin for apple.[/citation]

Careful, on Tom's you are going to get moderated -20 if you dare bring up reality. Just be like everyone else and say 'apple is done! nvidia is gonna go out of business! intel is gonna go down as soon as the next amd chip is out!'

Make sure to include horrific grammatical mistakes to blend in.. "buy" instead of "bye", "intensive" instead of "intents", etc. You must pass the angry pre-teen nerd fanboy filter man.

Anyway, yeah. I bet they would experience a solid 2-6% drop in their value by walking off from Apple.

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]cyprod[/nom]I think most people here are missing the point of Adobes suit, and I completely agree with them.The suit won't be about apple not wanting flash on iphone platforms, the suit is going to be the EULA with the 4.0 software. Lets be blunt here, the EULA is blatently anti-competative, which last time I checked is actually illegal.[/citation]

Actually there is no lawsuit filed yet, so we are only speculating what is going to be.

I am not fan of Adobe and even less fan of Apple. What I am interested here is the social benefit. First we know that Apple is tightly run by Steve Jobs, so not all decisions at Apple are rational. In the past Adobe had made choices that made Mr. Jobs to not trust/like (/or other word) Adobe. Now Mr. Jobs have opportunity to 'pay-back' Adobe and at the same time make opportunity to extend his vision how things are done in the world. Adobe doesn’t like that at all. And I would dare to say the most of us don't like it either. So let see how Adobe could handle Apple.

Scenario #1: Adobe sues Mr. Jobs for slander. Very bad choice from PR prospective and it is also very difficult case to prove in the court of law. Remember it is not TV commercial. Adobe should meet standards. I am not a lawyer, but as far I know minimum they have to prove that Mr. Jobs lied about that 'most crashes are caused by Flash' and also he did it with clear intention to discredit the competitor. I don't believe Adobe will follow this path.

Scenario #2: Apple is acting anti-competitive. This is very clear, but in USA this is not a problem until you become monopoly. Apple is very far to be classified as monopoly. So I don't think Adobe will even try this.

Scenario #3: Adobe sues Apple over their new SDK EULA. First problem Adobe lawyer are facing is the fact that Adobe is not side of that EULA. EULA is form of legal contract between Apple and iPhone/iPad developers. Adobe's lawyers should somehow to gather the majority of iPhone/iPad developer affected by this change and file the lawsuit on their behalf. This is very, very difficult to execute in real life. But let see what would happen if Adobe able to gather enough support and attacks the SDK EULA. Currently there are no laws that limit what goes in to EULA. This fact already gives Apple upper hand. But let’s assume that Adobe convinces the judge and/or jury that Apple's EULA is infringing on other existing laws. If Adobe is successful this is setting judicial precedent and it is going to be very, very big deal. It will go strait to Supreme Court and many other parties will get involved. I suspect that most of the software companies will argue in Apple's defense because the EULA is the core component of their businesses. Second problem for Adobe is that if they do this it opens the door for people that are opposing EULAs to attack Adobe's EULAs. The way I see it, it is lose-lose proposition for Adobe.

I am sure that Adobe lawyers are smart and might come up with other scenario, but from what I have seen so far they don't have very good odds in the court of law. So that is why I believe that Adobe will make mistake if they sue Apple. In my early comment I suggested how Adobe should win this one, but looks like most people decided that I am defending Apple and vote me down. I really don't care who wins in this battle at all. For me both Adobe and especially Apple are heading in wrong direction and they both will lose at the end.

 

[nukemaster]

There is just too much flash on the net to be totally getting rid of it. Flash is not well optimized and they are bad for getting updates out to the public, but it has got better over time and is still the standard for many things.