2007/3/6, Erik Moeller <<a href="mailto:erik@wikimedia.org">erik@wikimedia.org</a>>:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
How non-free do we consider Flash to be? The Gnash player appears to<br>be making good progress. Would it be acceptable to permit useful Flash<br>files which work in Gnash and don't require non-free codecs to be<br>uploaded?
<br><br>I did not see any issues with patents mentioned in the relevant<br>Wikipedia article. The old Macromedia Flash website lists a US patent<br>on "creating gradient fills", but that seems so bizarre as to pose no
<br>real threat.<br><br>(Let's keep this separate, for now, from the question when a format<br>like Flash would be appropriate, content-wise. I'd like to fully<br>understand the "freeness" first.)<br></blockquote>
</div><br>I know too little about the specific case to say something about it, but in my opinion the following should hold in freedoms:<br>* one should be free to create material in the format<br>* one should be free to change and republish what others have made in the format, provided that other person agrees
<br>* one should be free to build one's own program to show/play/whatever the format and translate material in the format into other applicable formats<br>* one should be free to build one's own program to create or edit material in the format
<br>* the definition of the format should be freely available<br><br>Furthermore, there should also be some 'free as in beer' freedoms:<br>* free players should be available for all three major systems (Windows, Linux and Mac)
<br>* preferably, all common players and editors for that type of media should support the format (that is, if Photoshop or GIMP does not support a certain image format, it might be better to not include it)<br><br>Non-freedoms which in my opinion are NOT a reason to reject a format would be:
<br>* Not being allowed to change or extend the format itself<br>* Any patents that could not be used to encumber the abovementioned freedoms, or for which the patent holder has explicitly stated to allow the abovementioned without restrictions
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Andre Engels, <a href="mailto:andreengels@gmail.com">andreengels@gmail.com</a><br>ICQ: 6260644 -- Skype: a_engels