Here we go again. The ongoing feud between Apple and Adobe just will not go away. Especially if Adobe has anything to say about it. The Federal Trade Commission’s office denied a request from Adobe, which was to see a near 200 pages of information relating to the lawsuit the company has against Apple. The request was made under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.
The FTC’s reasoning is that making such documents public, “could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission’s law enforcement activities”. This is a nice way of saying they don’t want to screw themselves if they in fact act upon the lawsuit. This is where Apple enters the picture. Whether or not the suit has any merit is still in question, however, to refuse access is an indication that this isn’t good for Apple, and certainly suggests that the investigation is very real.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg news reported in May that the FTC received a formal complaint from Adobe, concerning Apple’s denial of the company’s ability to port software such as Flash to iPhones and iPads. Apple implemented a device-wide ban on the software, after Adobe tried doing just this, which promoted the suit.
Steve Jobs went public about this via a letter in April, in which he degraded Adobe’s software, calling it “unfit for the modern mobile area of computing”. Also included in the not so loving letter was Job stating that porting such programs, would hinder performance, and leave users with “sub-standard apps”. He obviously hasn’t downloaded any fart machines. Nevertheless, I’d guess that Jobs wishes he would have went about this differently.
Whatever this refusal means, one thing is certain. There is more to this story than anyone is privy too. It seems strange that if the document was meaningless, the FTC wouldn’t have a problem making it public. The FOIT isn’t something you’d deny unless you have feel you might compromise its content, legally. We here at iDB will continue to follow this closely and update you as the information comes our way. Until then, enjoy your Flash free iPhone’s.
Any thoughts?