What's Wrong With Flash: An Explaination
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What's Wrong With Flash
(http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/WhyNotFlash)
Using or recommending Flash is equivalent to promoting proprietary software. In addition, the audio and video codecs claim to be patented, and the complete specification for making a compatible Flash player is not available. This page aims to document these problems and provide alternative suggestions.
Non-Free Software
The ActionScript code for a page's own Flash player is usually not free which means that you're still running non-free software in the end, even if you're using a free software player to interpret it. See "The JavaScript Trap" for more information.
A better solution is to use free and unencumbered audio and video codecs like Theora and Vorbis along with the HTML 5 video element and a free software browser that supports it, like GNU Icecat.
Patents
A major problem with the current Flash specification is that the audio and video codecs claim to be patented. This is a problem in countries that consider software patents to be valid because anyone who implements Flash must either pay for a patent license to use the audio and video codecs specified (namely the Sorenson Spark video codec, the most widely-used Flash codec, used by default on YouTube) or they must pass that cost onto the distributors and/or consumers. Most free software projects don't have the money to obtain patent licenses but even if they did, keeping track of the number of installed copies would be impossible due to the nature of free software distribution. Setting a requirement that the end user seek a patent license is normally incompatible with most free software licenses as well.
The Flash specification needs to allow for the use of free and unencumbered audio and video codecs like WebM, Theora, Vorbis or Dirac for this issue to go away. Eliminating software patents would also help: http://endsoftpatents.org.
See "The Danger of Software Patents" for more information: or RMS speak on the subject: High Res | Low Res
Non-Free Specifications
Adobe's Open Screen Project may have confused people into thinking that the Flash specification is totally open and free but, according to the Swfdec and Gnash project leads, it omits "huge amounts" of information needed to implement Flash. Additionally, the Flash specifications available from Adobe are distributed under a non-free license:
"This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without written approval from Adobe Systems Incorporated."
When people try to create their own independent implementations, Adobe steps in to stop them: In May 2009, Adobe submitted a takedown notice to SourceForge.net requesting that the rtmpdump project be removed from their site. SourceForge.net complied.
The major implication of this takedown notice is that Adobe has definitively told us that a fully-compliant free software Flash player is illegal. This is because RTMPE is part of Flash, circumventing RTMPE is illegal (in the U.S. at least), and Adobe will never give a key to a free software project since they cannot hide the key. As a result, we can never have a fully compliant free software Flash player that's legal to use and distribute, even if we ignore the codec patent problems.
How To Help
You can help by:
•refusing to install software to play Flash, even free software players,
•
asking websites to support free and unencumbered audio and video codecs like WebM, Theora, Vorbis or Dirac, along with the the HTML 5 video element, as opposed to Flash,
•supporting sites that use free video formats,
•telling others what you are doing.
Related documents
•
http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/#Guide explains why using Ogg format for audio and video files is important.
•
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/en/ helps you read Ogg files and promote Ogg format.
•
The libreplanet website has a page documenting video conversion to Webm.
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You could disable the plugin in the addons manager, or remove
browser-plugin-gnash. Youtube, for instance, will nag you about having
done this, but you can still visit the site.
First, obviously, Flash in Proprietary and should be avoided.
However, there really is no apt Free-Software Alternative for all the functions of Flash.
The problem is that the Free Software Flash Replacements typically only view Flash as a tool for playing videos. While this is probably what Flash is best known for, it's by no means that only thing that Flash does. To truly replace Flash, someone needs to develop a tool that does everything Flash does; something Adobe does not make easy to do.
As far as I can tell, even if the video capabilities of HTML5 become the new norm, many sites are not going to instantly re-do all of their video players.
1: Cam to Cam chat. Flash has the ability to do online chatting with people; audio and video. I have yet to see a Flash Alternative that can also interact with these sites. Could something like this be built with Free Software Java?
2: Flash is used to make games and other interactive environments. How close is HTML5 to doing this? I've seen some rudimentary HTML5 games, but nothing yet that compares to most flash games.
3: Is there any way to make a plug in that can translate embedded flash videos into HTML5 video so that we can still access old videos that won't likely ever convert to HTML5? Is that even possible?
4: Many sites use Flash to make their sites more interesting; such as animations, sounds, music, and interactive objects. Can Freely available Java or anything else do this as well? Also, what about sites already using Flash to do this? Similar to point three, much of the 'advanced' internet is built in Flash. It gets annoying visiting sites that are largely 'black out' without a Flash Player.
These are four things I hear almost nothing about when people talk about "replacing" Flash. With this and non-free Java, I feel that the Internet is largely getting away from the idea of freedom and free standards. Most of the sites I go to can not operate without Flash and Proprietary Java.
> 1: Cam to Cam chat. Flash has the ability to do online chatting with
> people; audio and video. I have yet to see a Flash Alternative that
can also
> interact with these sites. Could something like this be built with
Free
> Software Java?
Look at WebRTC for just one example. The better way to do this is not
using someone else's website, though -- help decentralize the internet
and use software on your own computer.
> 2: Flash is used to make games and other interactive environments.
How
> close is HTML5 to doing this? I've seen some rudimentary HTML5
games, but
> nothing yet that compares to most flash games.
JavaScript + Canvas
> 3: Is there any way to make a plug in that can translate embedded
flash
> videos into HTML5 video so that we can still access old videos that
won't
> likely ever convert to HTML5? I that even possible?
There are things available - A quick internet search returns results.
One such program that can convert Flash is FFmpeg. Others exist too.
> 4: Many sites use Flash to make their sites more interesting; such as
> animations, sound, and music. Can Freely available Java or anything
do this
> as well? Also, what about sites already using Flash to do this?
Similar to
> point three, much of the 'advanced' internet is built in Flash. It
gets
> annoying visiting sites that are largely 'black out' without a Flash
Player.
Flash isn't needed for websites. I rarely encounter sites that must
depend on Flash. If I do I leave. If you encounter one you can do the
same, possibly even writing to them and asking them to use internet
standards. If someone wanted a nice & "flashy" website, the tools
provided by HTML 5, CSS 3, and JavaScript provide all that's needed
are are much more standardized than Flash ever was -- remember that
the Flash specification is even incomplete, as the article says, so
not only does the author of the site become dependent upon Adobe but
they force the visitors of their site to be as well.
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For anyone in doubt, here is an example of what can be done with CSS, HTML5, Javascript, and absolutely NO Flash:
http://opengameart.org/content/castle-defense
Download that zip file, extract it, and run Index.html in your browser. Enjoy. The cool thing is that this is a game you'll actually want to play.
The game used to be hosted online, but it's been taken down for some reason. :(
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Castle Defense sounds great, and I can't play, just like Flash games;
cool! LOL.
Seriously, if this game shows a totally-free solution to good effect,
maybe we should show people, and not just say "free good, flash bad".
Now let's also show how we can satisfy protection and security concerns
people might have.
m971668
- If you care about freedom so much as you say you do, why are you such
a Progressive hiding behind a mask full of propaganda and too scared to
show your real end-game goal?
If you want freedom so much, why are you are not an objectivist or at
the very least a libertarian? How do you expect to find freedom through
propagating totalitarianism and not in laissez-faire or free market
anarchism?
Lengsel,
is there a reason for attacking m971668 so harsh ?
Relax... :)
Regards,
Holger
I would like to see major sites like www.disney.com make the switch over to HTML5 by utilizing video and canvas instead of Flash. I mention Disney due to it being a place where a lot of younger people go to play games and watch videos.
The problem is that they proably have 3rd party contractors that are trained in Flash and are selling the idea to Disney that Flash is the way to go and that HTML5 isn't ready. These contractors get around Flash not being on the iPhone/iPad and Android by creating mobile apps instead of mobile websites that can take advantage of HTML5.
It is seriously a big problem that hopefully some day will be fixed. Will it? Proabaly not as long as the media is controlled by these mega corporations that want to play it safe.
To them they think everyone has Flash anyways and if they don't, its a quick install from their site.
Disney is one of the biggest proponents of Digital Restrictions Management so while I agree that it would be great to see them do away with flash, they probably never will. They don't seem to care about freedom issues.
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By the way, I thought Mozilla had already demonstrated HTML5 games some time ago with browser quest
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I didn't know about BrowserQuest. Awesome.
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