[Commons-l] How non-free is Flash?

Erik Moeller erik at wikimedia.org
Tue Mar 6 08:39:25 UTC 2007


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.)
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

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"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
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