Hello !
> * Robert W Best <rwbest(a)sapo.pt> [2010-10-12 16:03:54 +0100]:
>
>> Hello, what's wrong about Adobe? They gave PDF to the world free and
>> documented.
>> I agree fully with your actions against Microsoft, but against Adobe
>> I don't understand.
>> Please clarify.
The point of the current campaign for the removal of advertisements for
non-free PDF readers, the FSFE is not to discredit or attack directly
Adobe Systems Inc.
What we intend with this campaign is to reestablish a free competition
in the market in that no software should benefit from a public support
without having to pay for it. And even in this case, this is a
distortion of the market in favor of one software, and worse one
software model. Public institutions have made a vow of neutrality
towards the market and shall be made aware that with these simingly
innocent recommandations, they are destabilizing the market.
The software that governments advertise for gets an advantage from the
public support they receive, and this support prejudices smaller
companies, be they proprietary or free software companies.
PDF is an Open Standard and as such can be equally read by all software
that is designed to read the standard. When public institutions state
"you need to download Adobe reader to read this file" they are ignoring
the alternatives and prejudicing them. They don't stand a chance against
one competitor that is recommanded by all public institutions.
Be it in the case of Microsoft or Adobe, there is always a danger for
the users when the market is ruled by a monopoly of one single company,
because we could end up in a situation where we are locked-in with Adobe
Systems, who could then decide to change their licensing policy, or
their price policy. It is what we fear with the current status of Adobe
over PDF.
Furthermore, we believe that Free Software are better for society, for a
question of control over the software one uses and a question of
liberties. People should have the choice of the software they use to
open and read one PDF document, and they are deprived from this choice
when one single software is benefiting from all the marketing effects of
the public support. We are not asking for government to replace
commercials for Adobe or foxit or any other proprietary software by
another commercial for one single Free Software. We would like them to
remove any commercial, or to provide the user with a list that is
neutral, so that people are offered a true choice.
I hope this explanation helped you to better understand our approach in
this campaign, if not, please don't hesitate to re-contact me.
Best regards,
--
Maëlle Costa
Free Software Foundation Europe - intern
im : maelle(a)jabber.fsfe.org