I don't know why we ended up discussing about Red5 name, but anyway. What i hate the most of this story is Adobe not being crystal clear. It's just a paragraph at the end of a huge post. I'd love an official post saying:
"To Red5, Wowza, haXe video and the likes: look guys, you were doing great, but c'mon, this is business and we have to protect ourselves. You will be not allowed to stream MPG4 to the Flash Player. Here's a link to the legal paper. Thanks for your work spreading the Flash platform, you did a great job." They even read this list and they haven't said anything, or at least anything in public. Am I asking for too much? Is it too naive expecting such a big company like Adobe to do something like this? I can hear a bunch of slashdotters laughing out loud: "We told you! Never embrace closed technologies!". However, Adobe plays really well just in the edge between the evil and the "friendly" company. From time to time they give us a sugar (Tamarin, Open Source Flex 2 SDK) and from time to time they do something like this. DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT blaming them for preventing 3rd party servers stream MPG4. Adobe IS a company, they developed the technolgy and they have the right to do whatever they want with it. If it's anybody's fault, it would be ours for embracing a closed technology such as Flash. Cheers, Juan On 8/22/07, Michael Chan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > To all RED5 users and Dev. > No need to change name, there are no laws in control one's name for > business unless it showed damages to the plaintiff, if a law suit > proceed, it is the plaintiffs must prove to court damage has been done > by defendants, in this case, by who?? OpenSource users ? > Not a smart lawyer case... > MC > > D. Dante Lorenso wrote: > > Rodrigo Ordonez Licona wrote: > > > >> Momentum is strong enough that we would follow developers to a red6 or > >> red7 (or whatever new name it needs) project in no time. > >> > > > > RED6!? Wow, is that an upgrade! I want! > > > > LOL > > > > -- Dante > > > > > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On > >> Behalf Of *Dominick Accattato > >> *Sent:* Martes, 21 de Agosto de 2007 04:35 p.m. > >> *To:* [email protected] > >> *Subject:* Re: [Red5] H.264 codec on Flash player... but not for Red5? > >> > >> Hank, as always I appreciate your comments on these matters. > >> > >> Additionally, I just checked an existing site I created and Sorenson is > >> still streaming fine, and I'd imagine that On2 will as well. I had no > >> doubts that they would as Adobe strives for backward compatibility even > >> though they have made security enhancements that broke existing content > >> in the past. > >> > >> I'm not sure why he wrote that it doesn't support sorenson > >> > >> On 8/21/07, *hank williams* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > >> > >> 1. I am not clear what name you are saying red5 comes close to > >> infringing. > >> > >> 2. If it does, there are no damages without notice. You cannot sue > >> if you ask someone to change the name and they do. Its not like > >> copyright infringement where any infringement creates a statutory > >> liability. Therefore any intelligent open source project would just > >> change its name. This would not be a smart strategy for eliminating > >> open source and I *strongly* doubt red5 is at any risk from this > >> kind of a plan. > >> > >> Regards, > >> Hank > >> > >> > >> On 8/21/07, *Donnacha* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > >> > >> RE: Trademarks > >> > >> To clarify what I meant, this issue has come up in discussion with > >> some very switched on people but not, I have to stress, anyone in > >> Adobe itself. The context was people in fairly high positions, > >> discussing the tricky problem, faced by many proprietary software > >> makers, of how to counter OSS competition without provoking a > >> publicity backlash; Adobe/Red5 came up as a perfect case study. > >> > >> There was total agreement that the Red5 developers have been > >> meticulous in ensuring that they didn't infringe Adobe's IP but the > >> name itself was identified as their Achilles heal, not necessarily > >> because it infringes a trademark or servicemark, although it > >> may, but > >> because it comes close enough to justify a court case. > >> > >> The case of a claimant against Red5 would not be strong enough to > >> guarantee a win and, therefore, would not be worth taking UNLESS a > >> third party anonymously funded the legal costs as a distraction/FUD > >> tactic, just as Microsoft part-funded SCO's anti-Linux > >> actions. This > >> form of anonymous funding is 100% legal and very common practice > >> among > >> American corporations. > >> > >> In the case of targeting OSS projects, the presumption is that no > >> formal structure is in place to fund a defense and that the > >> costs will > >> be borne by the lead developers with no prospect, in this type of > >> action, of re-couping their costs even if they win - each side eats > >> their own costs. > >> > >> This expensive process massively favors corporations and the vast > >> majority of these disputes never make it to court, never come to > >> public attention. > >> > >> As any such action would be a once-off opportunity and would be > >> held > >> in reserve until it can be used to maximum effect, probably > >> after the > >> project goes 1.0 and a lot of momentum has built up behind the > >> disputed name - being forced to change it at that point would be a > >> serious set-back. > >> > >> When the project was initially launched, I presumed that Red5 was > >> temporary title, a cute Star Wars reference that would soon be > >> replaced with a better name, one for which the .com was still > >> available. I never expected it would last this long, I figured > >> that a > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Red5 mailing list > >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > >> http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org > >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Red5 mailing list > >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > >> http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Dominick Accattato, CTO > >> Infrared5 Inc. > >> www.newviewnetworks.com <http://www.newviewnetworks.com> > >> > >> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Red5 mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org > >> > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Red5 mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Red5 mailing list > [email protected] > http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org > -- Juan Delgado - Zárate http://zarate.tv http://dandolachapa.com http://loqueyosede.com _______________________________________________ Red5 mailing list [email protected] http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/red5_osflash.org
