Dolby sues Adobe for dodging license fees

Audio specialist Dolby Labs is suing Adobe for copyright violation as the two companies sit at odds over licensing payments. A complaint [PDF] filed with the Northern California District Court accuses Adobe of violating its copyright on nine different media encoders and software routines. The complaint also alleges breach of …

[Ian 69]

Am I a bad person...

just for wanting Adobe to sweat???

[wsm]

Re: Am I a bad person...

No.

[Joe Werner]

Re: Am I a bad person...

Yes, but so are most (if not all) of us.... and we do not have a bad conscience, so we don't need to ask such a silly question ;-)

[TRT]

Re: Am I a bad person...

For all of Adobe's might, they should be sweating. You don't go taking on the likes of Dolby - they've got you surrounded already.

[gregthecanuck]

Re: Am I a bad person...

Congratulations! You win LOL of the day!!

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

Awesome!

I usd to work for a firm that audited record labels for underpayment of royalty to artists and copyright holders. We literally never did an audit that did not end in at least a six figure underpayment by the label, and it was very often multimillion underpayment.

I bet the underpayment here will be quality large.

[JeffyPoooh]

"royalty model"

Silly gooses. Everybody knows that "Royalties" are now exclusively used *within* multinational corporations to export their profits from any given jurisdiction to their IP Holding company in the Cayman Islands.

"Hey boss. We made $17,234,517.23 taxable profit last year here in Duhland, What's the royalty owed for our use of your valuable and exclusive trademarked brand 'Tax-Dodgers-R-Us'?"

"Let me calculate it. Ah. Carry the three... Ok; it's $17,234,517.23. Okay?"

Nobody uses "Royalties" to actually pay any *other* corporation. That's why we have great collections of patents about such things as "Using a Plurality of Photons to Make Visible One's Surroundings", to fend off any nonsense such as other corporations wanting our money.

After all. We have no money. It's all stashed in the Cayman Islands

Geesh. Kids these days...

[DanceMan]

Who's the pirate?

It's only piracy if some user doesn't pay?

[frank ly]

Re: Who's the pirate?

Quite right. These fine corporations are privateers.

[Anonymous Coward]

So if Dolby wins then Adobe also get done for falsifying their quarterly financial reports. On that basis I can't see Adobe lying but then again you never know. The SEC must be following this with interest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyrighting code ?

Oh do fuck off it's a technical solution to a technical problem and should be covered by patent at best, which means 20 years max and not death +70.

I hope Dolby lose, even shittier company than Adobe.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I hope Dolby lose, even shittier company than Adobe."

You do know that Adobe are responsible for Flash?

[Ochib]

Gordons ALIVE !

[StargateSg7]

No! MACROMEDIA was responsible for making Flash...Adobe merely bought them out and the founders cashed out and likely bought megayachts and 7000 square foot vacation houses in the Grand Caymans and Whistler/Blackcomb at a guess....

[Omgwtfbbqtime]

The only question here...

.. is who has the bigger/better lawyer?

Adobe will try to stonewall and delay.

Dolby will try to push this through as fast as possible.

Immovable object vs unstoppable force?

[Steve McGuinness]

How will Adobe get out of this one?

With some very Creative legal Acrobatics they hope.

An entire Suite of them

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How will Adobe get out of this one?

...ugh! WHY?!

[phuzz]

In other news, popcorn shares are on the rise.

[Rockets]

Adobe are only happy to audit their customers looking for clients being under licensed and handing customers a bill for outstanding licenses, good to see the shoe on the other foot for a change. Adobe audits can be brutal.