RE: Acrobat 4.05 -- consumer law and 1500 kg gorillas

["Hedley Finger (EPA)" <Hedley.Finger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Framoose:

Well, the whole issue of consumer's rights to free bug fixes for Adobe
Acrobat 4.0x is academic now that Adobe has responded to consumer outrage.  

Q: Where does a 1500 kg pet gorilla sleep in your small four-room apartment?

A: Anywhere she likes.
By all accounts, Quark's pricing and customer service are abominable and
they have been able to get away with it because they have had the field of
design-intensive and colour-critical page layout and publishing virtually to
themselves.  But what if InDesign DOES become the Quark killer?  With
Adobe's suite of publishing, production,  and graphic arts products across
the range, the company will have a monopoly of this market.  And which way
will the prices go, then?  Stand by for the birth of another 1500 kg pet
gorilla.  Unless I'm mistaken, this Acrobat farce is a harbinger.

With respect to consumer rights in Australia, too many multinational
software manufacturers assume that wide-ranging disclaimers protect them
from liability for remedying product defects and compensation for
consequential damages.  They had better become aware that contracts or
licences, even those agreed to by the customer, which attempt to limit
customers' rights are illegal and do not release the manufacturer from
liability.  What we need now is a test case against a large software
manufacturer which would clarify the sometimes muddy issue of software as a
good and back up the law with a good precedent.  Looks like it won't be
Adobe this time.  What I can't understand is why there has never been a
class action in Australia against Microsoft or whoever over a bug-ridden
software release.  How very instructional such a case would be!

> [FrameMaker 5.5.6, Acrobat 3.02, Windows 98, HP OmniBook 2100]
> 
> Regards,
> Hedley Finger   Technical Writer
> 
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