Adobe’s penchant for poor application design strikes again! See this news story, recorded earlier today:

Hole in Adobe software allows free movie downloads

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A security hole in Adobe Systems Inc software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com Inc’s video streaming service.

The problem exposes online video content to the rampant piracy that plagued the music industry during the Napster era and is undermining efforts by retailers, movie studios and television networks to cash in on a huge Web audience.

“It’s a fundamental flaw in the Adobe design. This was designed stupidly,” said Bruce Schneier, a security expert who is also the chief security technology officer at British Telecom.

That’s right, it looks like you can easily download many for-pay movies for free, and then save those movies on your hard drive. You are then able to make as many copies as you’d like, give the movies away for free, etc.

It’s funny that an Amazon spokesman tries to minimize the issue, saying that the movies “cannot be pirated using video stream catching software,” yet Reuters reports that they were able to do exactly that using relatively inexpensive software.