For the purposes of accessibility the letter is available as text below:
Citizen Complaint Center
Antitrust Division
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Room 3322
Washington, DC 20530
To whom it may concern:
I am deeply concerned and affected by the monopoly that Adobe Systems Incorporated has upon the graphic design and creative industry at large here in the United States of America. I have been unable to find job listings for graphic design and interactive design work that does not make it a job requirement to be skilled at these tools here in Los Angeles.
It is so bad that the decision between Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X has become nonexistent. It is an injustice, and a violation of human rights, that there is a silent agreement in the industry that has been made the tools of Adobe Systems Incorporated the only tools for employment. It is baffling that these concerns have not been addressed, as this type of behaviour in any other industry, would immediately raise concerns with even the most lighthearted.
In my effort to address these concerns I have took it upon myself to learn programming, and spent a year of my savings, sold my car, got rid of all my books and most possessions, moved to affordable single room occupancy housing, and educated myself about the Python programing language and web development. I went to Linux User Group meetings, attended conferences, joined mailing lists for help, and installed and configured lots of different software to gain experience and learn about the command line and administrative work.
With these new skills, I went to seek work as a developer and have had several interviews with companies in Los Angeles, and have consistently run into the problem that creates the monopoly for users on the other side, the non-disclosure-agreement. I am not against secrecy, however including software source code in the terms of the non-disclosure-agreement is a statement of indefinite secrecy, which has now lasted over twenty years, that has created the monopoly that exists today. I can not, in good faith, sign one of these agreements.
It is a testament of the deep problem, that I, and countless others, have been able to work outside of both of these industries for the last five years in my freelance career. A conflict between the users and the programmers that I believe now needs government intervention to remove these draconian requirements for employment. Believe it, we do exist, those whom are in-between user and programmer. And this is a freedom that everyone can exercise through a service industry.
Sincerely,
Braydon Fuller
http://braydon.com/
112 West 5th Street #870
Los Angeles, CA 90013