Adobe's Flash Player is used to display graphics content on millions of websites around the world, as well as being one of the (if not "the") most used technologies to drive the Internet video revolution. As a result, it has support in a large number of browsers installed on users' machines, and so it is an attractive target for those who seek to deliver malware to your computer.
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In this day and age swf is like some monstrosity from the past.. Proprietary software cobbled together, full of bugs and exploits. It was useful back in the day, but now with faster internet and better pc's it's outmoded by modern methods.
Webmasters should reject this obsolete technology and move forward with properly streamed video instead of relying on this restricted junk.
Adobe needs to get their head out of you know where. Try to install Flash Player on some PC's and it won't even authenticate the installation. Also, some pages that use FLV for their main video source (YouTube, Weather Channel) error with an "swf.cab" being blocked within Internet Explorer. (Yeah I use FireFox, but IE is used by IT here at work, so I have to live with it.)
Also Adobe Reader 8 doesn't open linked file names with spaces in them (all previous versions did) causing problems with in-house software and even website browsing at times.
Adobe Acrobat 7 and 8 have TRILLIONS of installation problems. Sometimes the only way to install it on a PC is to reinstall Windows from scratch!
Originally posted by read above link: The draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) broadly prohibits circumvention of copy-protection mechanisms, and thus criminalizes the exercise of fair use rights on DRM-encumbered content. The failure of the DMCA to provide adequate exceptions and safeguards for fair use, critics say, undermines the underlying principle of the copyright system, which is to promote creativity by establishing a fair balance between the rights of content producers and content consumers. All too often, lawmakers focus on protecting the content industry and forget that the permissive elements of copyright law?like fair use and the public domain?are just as essential to fulfilling the purpose of the system.
its the same old story, DRM used to keep the gatekeeper approach to media, so that only corporations can sell their wares and block users from uploading free content they have made them selves. I think adobe are taking a leaf out of the RIAA/IFPI/MPAA's book!
