Re: [Foundation-l] foundation-l Digest, Vol 36, Issue 20

Send foundation-l mailing list submissions to foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to foundation-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org You can reach the person managing the list at foundation-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of foundation-l digest..." Today's Topics: 1. How non-free is Flash? (Erik Moeller) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 09:39:25 +0100 From: "Erik Moeller" <erik(a)wikimedia.org> Subject: [Foundation-l] How non-free is Flash? To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>, "Wikimedia Commons Discussion List" <commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Message-ID: <b80736c80703060039y498cc1d7o47796e80e7578c60(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed How non-free do we consider Flash to be? The Gnash player appears to be making good progress. Would it be acceptable to permit useful Flash files which work in Gnash and don't require non-free codecs to be uploaded? I did not see any issues with patents mentioned in the relevant Wikipedia article. The old Macromedia Flash website lists a US patent on "creating gradient fills", but that seems so bizarre as to pose no real threat. (Let's keep this separate, for now, from the question when a format like Flash would be appropriate, content-wise. I'd like to fully understand the "freeness" first.)