Now for something straight out of the late 1990s: Adobe and Symantec are lobbying the European Union to block sales of Microsoft's Vista operating system on antitrust grounds. "Adobe Systems has told EU regulators that Microsoft should be banned from incorporating free competing software for reading and creating electronic documents with Vista," writes the Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) this morning. The Journal also reports that Symantec will send lobbyists to Brussels next week to stir up resistance to the Vista juggernaut.

Adobe, of course, is worried that Vista's built-in cross-platform document format (dubbed XPS) will steal market share from Adobe's Acrobat. And CEO John Thompson's swagger aside, Symantec is terrified that its Norton antivirus franchise will be trumped by Vista's built-in security tools.

Of course, they're right to be worried. Even before Vista steals any customers, Microsoft is already poaching employees, like Vinnie Gullotto, a top antivirus researcher who defected in August from Symantec to Microsoft. Wisely, both companies have opted to fight with every means necessary, and by making their antitrust move in Brussels, where regulators have openly quarreled with Microsoft long after their U.S. counterparts gave up the fight, they're attacking Microsoft's weakest legal flank.