Via Slashdot, word that Adobe is opening the SWF and FLV file formats through the Open Screen Project. On first read this seemed great—Adobe essentially re-opening the SWF spec. It was released under a less onerous license by Macromedia ca. 1998, but then closed back up again once it became clear that the other vector graphics for the web proposals from Microsoft and others would not be an actual competitor. At the time, Microsoft had submitted a binary format called VML to the W3C, and the predecessor to SVG (called PGML) had also been proposed by then-rival Adobe and friends.

On second read it looks like they’re trying to kill Android before it has a chance to get rolling. So history rhymes ten years later. (Shannon informs me that this may qualify as a pantoum).

But to their credit (I’m shocked, actually), both specs are online already:

The SWF (Flash file format) specification

The FLV (Flash video file format) specification

….and more important, without any sort of click-through license. (“By clicking this button you pledge your allegiance to Adobe Systems and disavow your right to develop for products and platforms not controlled or approved by Adobe or its partners. The aforementioned transferral of rights also applies to your next of kin as well as your extended network of business partners and/or (at Adobe’s discretion) lunch dates.”)

I’ve never been nuts about using “open” as prefix for projects, especially as it relates to big companies hyping what do-gooders they are. It makes me think of the phrase “compassionate conservatism”. The fact that “compassionate” has to be added is more telling than anything else. They doth protest too much.