Vengeance Against Adobe

[Tim May]

At 11:44 PM -0400 7/23/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Another effect will be companies that wish to take advantage of the
>criminal sections of the DMCA will be more likely to cover their
>tracks when dealing with the Feds. The next Adobe won't be so quick to
>admit they contacted the FBI, for instance.
>

Something's that interesting is the _speed_ and _strength_ of the 
reactions against companies when they cross some line.

Adobe's use of police state measures to have a minor critic (by their 
own later admission) yanked out of a conference is not likely to be 
forgotten quickly. I expect this will have consequences when they 
eventually resume college recruiting. Adobe will likely face sneers 
and derisive laughter when it shows up on college campuses next 
spring to recruit.

My old employer, Intel, has also caught the wrath of the community a 
couple of times. Notably when they briefly tried to add a "processor 
I.D." They retreated, though Microsoft was not deterred a few years 
later from planning their own "registration" features.

("This system has a different printer attached to it than when it was 
Officially Registered with the Borg Mothership. We have concluded 
that you are a possible software pirate. Windows XP, Microsoft 
Office, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer have been disabled. 
Contact our office during normal business hours and attempt to 
explain why we should reauthorize you. Have a Microsoft day!")

Like Niven's "flash crowd" effect, the slash dot, mailing list, and 
online news services are making the anger of the users a terrible 
swift sword. Adobe became a pariah in a matter of days.

Adobe will be suffering for a long time to come.

(Note to our FBI monitors: This is NOT a threat against Adobe. Note 
to Cypherpunks: With feebs like the Feebs out there, one can never 
assume that ordinary figures of speech will be understood.)

--Tim May


-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns