Adobe Wants to Be a Player [BusinessWeek]

See the full article for more on Adobe's ambitions

Flash isn't itself a media player, but now Adobe wants to use it as the basis for one, which will be available for download in early April. The Adobe Media Player will pull together Hollywood content and selected videos from thousands of Web sites. The service is free, and you won't have to worry about getting sued by an irate movie studio—the Adobe player follows whatever rules the content owner sets for streaming and downloading. The catch? You can't strip out the ads embedded in the videos, which help pay for the "free" player. (Adobe also makes money selling Flash to Web sites that serve up the content. And of course, it's famous for Photoshop and the Adobe Reader.)

Adobe Wants to Be a Player