"Michael Makin, CEO of PIA/GATF, presented a position paper to Adobe
on behalf of The Graphic Communications Coalition for Open
Competition, a coalition that was formed to protest the agreement and
to work toward having the involved parties promptly dissolve the
agreement. The coalition includes NAPL, NAQP, and franchise
organizations AlphaGraphics, Allegra, Minuteman Press, Sir Speedy,
ICED, PIP and Signal Graphics. Steve Bonoff, Executive Director of
IPA, was also present at the meeting.
In its position paper, the Coalition stated that it “views the
agreement as providing an unfair advantage to FedEx/Kinko’s at the
expense of the many printing and graphic communications companies
that have worked in good faith in cooperation with—and with the
active encouragement of—Adobe Systems, Inc., to make Adobe software
the de facto standard among many end users for reading documents and
printing-file submission.” It urged Adobe to extricate itself from
the agreement with FedEx Kinko’s and to remove the FedEx Kinko’s logo
and embedded link from its software in a timely manner, indicating,
“anything short of that is unacceptable to this coalition.”
The Coalition reinforced its firm commitment to getting the button
removed by saying, “…should Adobe Systems not comply with this
request, the Coalition will continue to work actively on this issue,
exploring any and all options—both legal and otherwise—to have the
agreement blocked and to encourage our members to explore alternative
applications to Adobe.”
