[conspire] help with adobe flash I can't watch my "good stuff" videos online/

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:14:33 -0800, Rick Moen wrote:

> The main problem is that Adobe Systems, Inc. refuses to make available
> specifications for any recent version of the Flash language except under
> NDA.

This is not quite accurate. The specifications to create SWF _players_ has
always been "trade-secret" information, and has never been available to
ANYONE outside Macromedia, even under NDA. You might be confusing them
with the specifications to create SWF _files_, which Macromedia had
available for public download with a restrictive license, but Adobe put
under NDA.

The distinction comes into play for the simple reason that the vast
majority of SWF files out there don't even come close to conforming to
Macromedia's or Adobe's own specifications for SWF files. Since the
behavior of the official SWF player is the de facto final arbiter in
determining "conformance," reimplementation necessarily hinges on
duplicating this behavior, which is not publicly described anywhere.