Adobe Clears air on Flash Player 10.1 Runtime Restrictions

One thing you can't deny about Adobe is that they are listening. Be it a forum question, a blog post, over even a tweet. If you have a genuine question, they will do their best to give a genuine answer. For that, I highly respect Adobe.

Earlier this month I was confused about how Adobe could promote the Open Screen Project while they were still using an End User License Agreement that stated you could only run Flash on a PC.

Adobe responded in force:
John Dowdell said he understood the rule to mean that one can no redistribute the Flash Player without a license and that the device needed to be able to update the player.

Tom M Nguyen, Product Manager for the Adobe Flash Player, added his take on the forums by saying the main restriction is that the device needs to be able to update the Flash player since non-update-able devices would be detrimental to the user's experience.

Emmy Huang, Group Product Manager for the Adobe Flash Player, ended the debate by saying the EULA I was referencing was dated February of 2008 and will be updated once Mobile builds are ready for beta. Here is her response in full:

The EULA and distribution agreement have not been updated yet. We don't have mobile builds posted anywhere since they aren't in beta.

If you check the date, the EULA is from Feb of 2008.

Also, keep in mind that Adobe may not be the ones distributing the player binaries. Through Open Screen Project, partners can license source for porting in which case the EULA does not come from Adobe.

Also note that OSP royalty free terms are for open systems with the goal of providing a consistent runtime for web browsing and applications. Closed systems do not qualify for royalty free licensing. If you have a question about whether your use case qualifies for OSP terms, you can contact OSP here http://www.openscreenproject.org/contact/

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That should clear up the debate. As long as your device can download the player and update itself then you will be able to use Flash Player 10.1 without a special license or fee. So back to work everyone, continue planning your mobile devices and non-PC content.