how implementable Flash is [LWN.net]

how implementable Flash is

Posted Jan 25, 2010 21:12 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
In reply to: Blizzard: HTML5 video and H.264 - what history tells us and why we're standing with the web by Per_Bothner
Parent article: Blizzard: HTML5 video and H.264 - what history tells us and why we're standing with the web

I'd've thought that implementing Flash would raise lots of patent problems, but this doesn't seem to have happened. When I heard Rob Savoye of Gnash complaining about software patents last February, he was complaining about codec patents.

I can't find any info online right now, but I seem to remember him saying the the main legal difficulty with implementing Flash is that he can't hire any programmers in the USA because there's a draconian clause in Adobe's licence that's enforceable in the USA and nowhere else. Something about "if you use this software, you agree not to use the gained knowledge for the purpose of writing a competing program". Not sure where you'd find the details... anyone know what I'm talking about?

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how implementable Flash is

Posted Jan 25, 2010 21:50 UTC (Mon) by MarkVandenBorre (subscriber, #26071) [Link]

I've talked to Rob in the past and heard him say exactly the same. I seem to vaguely remember him writing that this situation has changed somewhat for the better though. But don't quote me on that.

how implementable Flash is

Posted Jan 26, 2010 2:20 UTC (Tue) by butlerm (subscriber, #13312) [Link]

Something about "if you use this software, you agree not to use the gained knowledge for the purpose of writing a competing program"
It it is somewhat questionable whether a term like that in a retail end user license agreement would in fact be enforceable, especially if the user of the software was not the person who installed it. Courts in the United States have decided both ways. If the EFF wanted to do something useful, they would find people with standing to challenge the extremely dubious arguments behind retail shrinkwrap licenses and push the counterargument based on traditional legal reasoning and copyright law until the disingenuousness of the idea that consumers do not own "copies" of software they buy of the shelf (and the consequent nullity of most end user SLAs) is obvious to every judge in the country.

how implementable Flash is

Posted Jan 26, 2010 13:31 UTC (Tue) by dannyobrien (subscriber, #25583) [Link]

If the EFF wanted to do something useful, they would find people with standing to challenge the extremely dubious arguments behind retail shrinkwrap licenses and push the counterargument based on traditional legal reasoning

It's funny you should say that... actually EFF is heavily involved in this fight (it was counsel on two of the three cases listed on the page you linked to), and I do believe we're expecting to work on a number of key cases in this area in the next year. We generally describe this as the fight over first sale (partly because the fight also includes patent issues as well as shrinkwrap licenses), but it's the same counterargument.