04.30.08

Wither Web Standards? (The Adobe and Microsoft Threat)

Posted in DRM, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents, Protocol, Standard at 11:02 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The Web was created to become (and remain) a fully transparent framework that is built using open components. There were some threats in the past to its openness, namely ‘objectification’ in HTML (embedded media players, Shockwave, etc.) and disobedient companies that ‘extended’ things in a variety of undocumented ways (e.g. ActiveX, IE-specific/Office-esque ‘HTML’).

Back in December, not so long after the anti-Ogg fiasco, we said we would significantly reduce the use of YouTube (Flash) for videos, but this promise has been hard to keep as ripping tools (YouTube -> Ogg) continued to break. Where does that leave us all?

We have explained before why Microsoft’s Silverfish [sic] is more harmful than Flash, but all in all, both are harmful. Mozilla too is now warning about them. [thanks to an anonymous reader for the headsup]

ZDNet.co.uk is reporting that at the Internet World Conference in London, Nitot warned that companies like Adobe and Microsoft might have an agenda with their Flash and Silverlight technologies. Even though at the moment these technologies are free to download, this might change in the future. “But maybe they have an agenda,” Nitot said, “they’re not here for the glory; they’re here for the money.” He also warns for the dangers of these companies withholding products from certain markets. As examples, he mentions Internet Explorer for the Mac/UNIX, and Adobe’s refusal to provide up-to-date binaries of Flash.

The reader who E-mailed this to us called it “decomodization [sic] of web standards.” This isn’t the first time that Mozilla talks about this serious issue publicly [1, 2]. The significance here is rather high especially if you consider the role of the Web browser, which many continue to consider the ‘new O/S’, at least in the sense of its presence and role (not the technical sense).

While the current generation of browsers and SAAS applications offers plenty of choice but some security concerns, the next generation could turn this on its head, providing greater security but less choice. That’s because we are quickly moving to a type of Web application that will no longer be delivered to a general-purpose Web browser but will instead be deployed to something dedicated to that specific SAAS application.

This is the world of single-site browsers and rich Internet applications.

In this world, users don’t open a Web browser and then use a bookmark or link to access their important Web applications. Instead, these Web applications are installed and deployed almost as if they were desktop applications. Users launch them from their Start menu or desktop, and the SAAS application runs in its own single-purpose browser window.

Pages that cross-reference this one

14 Comments

Hassan Ibraheem said,

May 1, 2008 at 2:58 am

Adobe seems to be taking steps in the right direction, today they announced releasing Flash (SWF/FLV) file formats specification with no licensing restrictions (not sure exactly, but they say so).
It’s not the Adobe Flash Player, but it’s a good step I think.
Source: http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/
Roy Schestowitz said,

May 1, 2008 at 3:06 am

This ought to help gnash. Good move by Adobe.
akf said,

May 1, 2008 at 3:19 am

I sent you an e-mail a while ago, trying to explain how I can convert flash video to theora now. But you haven’t answered that mail. Did you get it?

For short: ffmpeg2theora can do it now.
Roy Schestowitz said,

May 1, 2008 at 3:38 am

akf, which address did you send it to?
akf said,

May 1, 2008 at 5:09 am

You don’t want me to post your address here, do you?

I used an e-mail address, which I found on your private homepage… after long searching. And I encrypted it with the gpg-key I found there. It was on 14. Apr.
Shall I try to send it again?
akf said,

May 1, 2008 at 5:30 am

Okay, I explain it here for short:

You can download it with the service on:
http://www.downloadyoutubevideos.com/

Then, at least on a current debian lenny system you can convert it like this:
ffmpeg2theora -p preview –sync file.flv

You can try other settings, but you need the –sync option.

see http://www.v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/
Roy Schestowitz said,

May 1, 2008 at 6:31 am

Thanks for that!

I have the feeling that I got your E-mail and replied, but I can’t find it in my archives. I’ll take a look and see if I can manage quick Ogg conversion, with the goal of making more Oggs available where copying is permitted.

Thanks again.
LinuxIsFun said,

May 1, 2008 at 6:39 am

akf check out Pytube to download YouTube videos.

what i can understand is previously adobe allowed to write put not play SWF/FLV/F4V files. Now they are allowing to write and play without any license restriction. Great job adobe !

http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/faq/index.html

The SWF specification has been published since 1998. Until today, the specification had a license agreement associated with it, which said that developers could write software to output SWF but could not make software that would “play” SWF files. These license terms were initially included to prevent fragmentation, which most client technologies have experienced. These terms have worked well for Flash Player over the past decade as it now reaches over 98% of PCs on the Web with a consistent runtime, enabling things such as the video revolution we see today across the Web. With this announcement, Adobe is removing this restriction from the SWF specification, as we have established a consistent runtime and we want to ensure the industry can confidently continue to support the SWF format. This will permit the development of applications that “play” SWF files. Adobe will of course remain focused on making the best, most reliable and consistently distributed implementation across desktops and devices.
LinuxIsFun said,

May 1, 2008 at 6:40 am

akf check out Pytube to download YouTube videos.

what i can understand is previously adobe allowed to write put not play SWF/FLV/F4V files. Now they are allowing to write and play without any license restriction. Great job adobe !

http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/faq/index.html

The SWF specification has been published since 1998. Until today, the specification had a license agreement associated with it, which said that developers could write software to output SWF but could not make software that would “play” SWF files. These license terms were initially included to prevent fragmentation, which most client technologies have experienced. These terms have worked well for Flash Player over the past decade as it now reaches over 98% of PCs on the Web with a consistent runtime, enabling things such as the video revolution we see today across the Web. With this announcement, Adobe is removing this restriction from the SWF specification, as we have established a consistent runtime and we want to ensure the industry can confidently continue to support the SWF format. This will permit the development of applications that “play” SWF files. Adobe will of course remain focused on making the best, most reliable and consistently distributed implementation across desktops and devices.
LinuxIsFun said,

May 1, 2008 at 6:40 am

akf check out Pytube to download YouTube videos.

http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/faq/index.html

The SWF specification has been published since 1998. Until today, the specification had a license agreement associated with it, which said that developers could write software to output SWF but could not make software that would “play” SWF files. These license terms were initially included to prevent fragmentation, which most client technologies have experienced. These terms have worked well for Flash Player over the past decade as it now reaches over 98% of PCs on the Web with a consistent runtime, enabling things such as the video revolution we see today across the Web. With this announcement, Adobe is removing this restriction from the SWF specification, as we have established a consistent runtime and we want to ensure the industry can confidently continue to support the SWF format. This will permit the development of applications that “play” SWF files. Adobe will of course remain focused on making the best, most reliable and consistently distributed implementation across desktops and devices.
Hassan Ibraheem said,

May 1, 2008 at 7:08 am

I use a tool called Pytube and it’s great, it searches and downloads YouTube videos, and convert and all that stuff.
I highly recommend it, but the website is down for now, you may check some info here till the project’s site is back online.
Roy Schestowitz said,

May 1, 2008 at 7:14 am

I’ve had Pytube installed for a while, but Google applied some changes to YouTube on the face of it, so Pytube’s underlying code was no longer compatible (I didn’t try to get the latest version).

Thanks to akf I got the whole pipeline working very quickly, so I’ll produce Oggs and host them here in the future if it’s legally possible. Here’s a corny one that I’ll add later:

All those videos that accumulate inside the home directory slow down my backups, but more Oggs on the Web can have a positive effect.
akf said,

May 1, 2008 at 11:44 am

Nice one.

But better leave the “-p preview” away…

P.S.:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZNVLzdKDeyQ
Roy Schestowitz said,

May 1, 2008 at 11:54 am

I’m attending a talk of Richard Stallman in about 30 minutes. He came to Manchester, so I’ll probably get the chance to say “hi”.

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