Re: [Gnash] Gnash cannot legally play animations created with MM tools?

[Rob Savoye]

Udo Giacomozzi wrote:

> Regardless of whether I might do the right thing in respect to the
> EULA and/or local rights, I can't be involved in any lawsuit because I
> simply have no 8 months of time left.

  I don't think this would be your problem, it's mine. So I'd assume for
now to just keep doing things the way you have been, and I'll try to
work out the issue. It just might take a while...

> When reading the *player* licence you'll notice that they absolutely
> forbid the use of the free player (be it under Windows or Linux) for
> embedded devices. That sounds to me that they see potential in the
> embedded market and want to make sure they get the money for the
> embedded version. It's intelligible as embedded devices and Flash make
> a great combination.

  The plugin wouldn't work very well on an embedded device anyway. The
big difference between many embedded devices and a browser plugin is
that a company may ship millions of devices. MacroMedia preferred to get
paid a licensing fee for every single copy. This is a traditional
business model for embedded systems. Free software has upset this model,
which is why many companies are switching to embedded Linux. So if you
ship millions of devices, they wanted millions of dollars.

  Adobe, however, has always supported people utilizing their documented
 formats like PDF and Postscript, and doesn't even charge per device,
like say a Laser printer. (at least I don't think they do, I've been out
of the printer biz for 16 years) I believe they prefer to make their
money on the content creation tools instead. Since Adobe never attacked
Evince, Xpdf, Gpdf, Ghostscript, etc... I assume Gnash is fine too. I'd
still like a legal opinion, or word from Adobe so I can relax.

        - rob -