[Gnash-dev] fwd: Adobe lifts Flash and AIR development restrictions

[Rob Savoye]

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/05/01/adobe_open_access_protocols/

> Adobe's licensing had acted as a bottleneck, as you were allowed to
> read the specifications and able to build using SWF but prohibited
> from building software for SWF file playback. Or, as McAllister put
> it, you: "Couldn't build anything that looked or smelled like a Flash
> player - only Adobe could do it."
>
> As of May 1, though, you can build your own Flash player and embed
> Flash into an application, which is particularly handy because it
> means you no longer need to rely on Flash running in the browser,
> with resulting performance and network availability issues.

  It looks like we may now legally be allowed to read the swf
specifications, as well as work on Gnash without problem. I've been
bugging Adobe about this for over a year, maybe we're finally getting
somewhere. :-) We'll need a real legal opinion, but I think this will
let people contribute to Gnash even if currently we'd consider them
"contaminated".

        - rob -