Features

Adobe to buy Accelio FOR $72M  

SAN JOSE — In a move to bolster its network publishing empire, Adobe Systems Inc. said Friday it has agreed to acquire Canadian-based business software maker Accelio Corp. for $72 million in stock. 

San Jose-based Adobe is the leading desktop publishing software company and the second-largest PC software company in the United States. 

Its Adobe Acrobat portable document format, or PDF, reader, has become a standard for document distribution on the Web, and is the company’s largest revenue generator as government agencies and businesses transition from paper-based to electronic-based processes. 

Adobe officials said acquiring Ottawa-based Accelio, one of the leading software makers of business forms with more than 7,000 customers worldwide, will quickly broaden its “ePaper” business. 

‘Free DVD’ gang pleads guilty  

LOS ANGELES — Two members of a prominent cyberspace gang that posted free downloads of DVD programs and other software pleaded guilty to criminal charges of copyright infringement. 

Kentaga Kartadinata, 30, and Mike Nguyen, 26, both of Los Angeles were members of a gang known as DrinkorDie. Under a plea agreement, both men face between 27 and 33 months in prison, prosecutors said. They remain free on bail and will be sentenced a later date. 

Authorities have seized more than 100 computers in five different countries allegedly used by members of the so-called Warez community, which served as an umbrella group for smaller cyberspace gangs such as DrinkorDie. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Johnson said indictments are expected soon against at least 50 other DrinkorDie members. 

Nguyen, a computer programmer at the University of California, Los Angeles managed several of the group’s file servers containing thousands of pirated software titles. 

Apple entangled in consumer lawsuit  

CUPERTINO — Apple Computer Inc. faces a lawsuit alleging it misled consumers and made low-quality software upgrades for older computers to “accelerate a deliberate policy of planned obsolescence.” 

According to the proposed class-action suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Los Angeles, the Cupertino-based company encouraged customers in 1998 and 1999 to buy their latest PowerPC G3 computers, while promising the units would be capable of running Apple’s next-generation operating system called OS X. 

The company also said OS X would be “fully optimized” to run on those G3 models. 

But Apple, which released Mac OS X last year, broke both promises, the lawsuit alleges. 

“Computers have a short life span compared to other assets — that’s for sure. But when a company makes claims to spur sales, they ought to live up to their claims,” said Thomas Ferlauto on Friday. He is one of four named plaintiffs and a Los Angeles attorney in the case. Apple declined to comment on the pending litigation.