Even if Macromedia made promises or statement on this list or elsewhere it would mean nothing and you are quite right, they could pull the plug at any time.
This very fact will also make any serious commercial deployments of products such as RED5 (once ready) a risky business. To be honest I am surprised how 'laid back' Macromedia has appeared so far, not many companies would be up for this. In regards to the perimeter fence, this hasn't been erected yet. The discussions here will mean nothing in the long run unless some legal documents are signed. Even Mike cannot make comments on behalf of MM in this regard. It's up to Macromedia/Adobe to lay out the rules for the game. Having the referee play on one of the teams doesn't make much of a great sport and leaves the other side wondering if it's worth playing at all. I sincerely hope that the outcome of everyone's efforts will benefit both sides. I also honestly believe that any success of an open source product such as RED5 will have a positive impact on commercial products such as FMS2. Stefan > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of The Irrelevant Elephant > Sent: 26 October 2005 12:10 > To: Open Source Flash Mailing List > Subject: Re: [osflash] Legal Considerations That Concern Us All > > Johan Lopes wrote: > > It's not my intention to hijack this thread but what I'm saying is this: > > I shouldn't worry about hijacking the thread. I think this discussion > is probably long overdue. Macromedia still retain a joker card as it > stands, because they are at liberty at any time to pull the plug on one > of these projects - because they have not given official consent to any > of them. > > Obviously they have every legal right to protect their products and > their intellectual property, but I think that perhaps the uncertainty > that lies on both sides probably stems from the fact that are no agreed > rules in the playground. > > Macromedia are obviously keen to oversee proceedings here to ensure that > we are within the boundaries they are comfortable with - i.e. their > EULA's, and we as an open source community are keen to adhere to > Macromedia's wishes - not only for legal reasons, but also because we > have a respect for Macromedia. > > These discussions really set the boundaries. I suspect Mike's comments > last night were probably intended to remind us that we were getting a > bit close to the perimeter fence. > > The fact of the matter is, as things stand - despite Macromedia's public > embracing of open source, any of these projects may hit problems once > they are stable and start becoming popular. Take Red5 for example. A > huge amount of effort has gone into producing it - but what happens if > Macromedia discover that Red5 is becoming more popular than FCS? Will > they compete or legally squash Red5? Who knows. That's why we need > these discussions - so that Macromedia can understand that we want to > enhance the Flash world, not take it over - and so that we can > understand how far Macromedia is prepared to let us go to do that. > > - IE > > _______________________________________________ > osflash mailing list > [email protected] > http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/osflash_osflash.org _______________________________________________ osflash mailing list [email protected] http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/osflash_osflash.org
