Re: Shockwave Licensing Petition - shockwave *is* free!

[John Dowdell]

At 6:19 PM 3/27/98, Rob Koberg - Home wrote:

>If you sign up with microsoft to be a distributor of their

>browser (which is free and easy).  Then you automatically get to

>distribute several other things for free of which I believe are the

>controls for Director and Flash.



That's what I've been saying all along!!  <exasperated wail>


Any websurfer is free to download their own personal copy of the Shockwave

engines. They'll be auto-detected, they'll be auto-installed, they'll

always be up-to-date and otherwise Hygenically Sanitary.


If you have a client that uses web browsers but does NOT go on the web at

all, then their browser and operating system CDs have licensed the

Shockwave engines and have installers. If you're only "surfing" offline,

then your browser CD has Shockwave.


Now, if you have a business client, and they want to use web browsers, and

they don't want their employees on that scary internet, and they don't let

people install their own software from CD, and so they want to put

everything on their own server... well, then *that* is when they get

charged for the engineering effort done here. (It really does help to pay

the bills.)


We also get licensing fees from those creating *applications* that use

Flash or Director as component multimedia engines. Visual Basic and Delphi

people and all are getting big on this, and we do charge them more for

redistribution than we do web designers.


Rephrased, hey-yeah-sure-absolutely *do* install from browser or OS CD if

you wish.




>I believe the argument MM will give

>is, "Well, your clients won't be getting the most up to date version."

>What I say to that is great.  Who cares?


I do usually note this, when I retype the basic message with bonechilling

regularity, but I also add that you can absolutely set minimum versions

with the free Smart Shockwave button. There is no need to demand the latest

version, but you can certainly specify a minimum version in your HTML, and

the Smart Shockwave technology effort makes this easy.


Rephrased, it's not always necessary to play back in the latest engines.

That's a design decision that you can make, yourself.



Summary: Anyone can download their own copy. There are also licensed copies

on your browser and OS CDs. Licensing is only for those who wish to

distribute the core engine themselves, and besides a monetary cost there

are also security, versioning, and support costs with it too.



jd



John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US


Private email options: http://www.macromedia.com/support/priority.html

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