[thelist] pixel perfect requirements and web standards

Shawn K. Quinn skquinn at speakeasy.net
Tue Jun 7 08:22:40 CDT 2005


On Tue, 2005-06-07 at 09:53 -0300, Sarah Sweeney wrote:
    [I wrote:]
> > 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.
>  
> My guess is that this means absolutely nothing to the average web user. 
> Even I don't really understand what it means, or (especially) how it 
> would affect my ability to experience a site done in Flash.

Maybe not, but it means a lot to Macromedia who will happily sue anyone
who writes an unauthorized Flash plug-in. It means a lot to those who
would write a Flash plug-in based on Macromedia's supposedly "open"
specification, not realizing that the license to use the specification
is only granted for programs that *export* SWF.

It wouldn't affect you if you use Macromedia's closed source pile o'
bits plug-in, no. I never said it would.

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



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