Ubuntu
flashplugin-nonfree package

Adobe Flash Player End User License Agreement

Asked by Christopher Forster

4.5 No Modification or Reverse Engineering. You shall not modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based upon the Software. You shall not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software. If you are located in the European Union, please refer to the additional terms at the end of this agreement under the header “European Union Provisions,” in Section 16.

Source

PlatformClients_PC_WWEULA_Comb ined_20100108_1657.pdf

One problem for the project is the difficulty of finding developers. The current developers have never installed Adobe's Flash player, because they fear that anyone who has ever installed the Adobe Flash Player has at the same time accepted an agreement not to modify, reverse engineer or develop a competing Flash player. Therefore, the Gnash project has only about 6 active developers.

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash

Why not include a legal alert message for the “flashplugin-nonfree” package in Ubuntu?

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#1

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

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Christopher Forster (christopherforster) said : 		#2

UDS Prague (Intrepid Ibex) - Rob Savoye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoNvsiBTQDE

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#3

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Christopher Forster (christopherforster) said : 		#4

Dave Crossland wrote:

> I heard that this EULA forbids potential Gnash developers in the USA
> from contributing if they have ever agreed to it.

  Correct, which is why none of the Gnash developers in the US have ever
agreed to it. We've known about this since the beginning, and it's
successful at keeping many people from contributing to Gnash that would
like to. I believe in EU countries, the clause is considered illegal, as
it's not valid copyright law. Here in the US it's not really a legit
copyright notice either, but it has never been tested in court.
Copyright law supposedly can only apply to the copyrighted material
being covered, and not extended to "no implementing of similar
technology" types of coverage according to the lawyers I've talked to.

  The player project manager at Adobe once mentioned on her blog last
year they were "revisiting their EULA language" to help Adobe be a
better player in the free & open source software communities, but I'm
not holding my breath waiting. I don't need to use any Adobe products
anyway.

> Could anyone confirm in this is true, and which clause specifically
> has this nasty effect?

  I believe it was #8. The language is something of the "can't write a
flash player if you agree to this" variety.

        - rob -

Source

http://<email address hidden>/msg01420.html

Gnash 0.8.8 plays YouTube videos.

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#5

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

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Christopher Forster (christopherforster) said : 		#6

[Gnash-dev] Does the latest Flash Player EULA still prevent people from coding for Gnash?

Source

http://<email address hidden>/msg05065.html

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#7

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Christopher Forster (christopherforster) said : 		#8

Latest Adobe Flash Player EULA:

http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/#flash_player

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#9

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.