[thelist] pixel perfect requirements and web standards

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Tue, 2005-06-07 at 07:38 +0000, Kasimir K wrote: 
> Shawn K. Quinn scribeva in 2005-06-07 06:54:
> > It never has been free, by which I mean free as in freedom. It has
> > always been available as a binary for zero licensing cost, but the
> > license gives you virtually no freedom.
> 
> While Flash is definitely not Free (as speech not beer), and it's not 
> really that Open either, it's openish anyway :-)
> 
> You can get the specs at
> http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/licensing/fileformat/
> and write your own flash player :-)

No, you can't either:

> 2. Licenses
> Pursuant to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted
> a nonexclusive license to use the Specification for the sole purposes
> of developing Products that output SWF. Provided your Product complies
> with the Specification terms and conditions, then you are also granted
> a nonexclusive license to identify your Product as Macromedia Flash™
> Enabled according to the Logo Usage Guidelines located at
> http://www.macromedia.com/go/flash_trademark.

Notice it says "output SWF", not "playback SWF" or "use SWF as input".
There are many other things in this agreement that make it, effectively,
very non-open and non-free, even if downloaded at zero cost.

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>