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Macromedia SDK License: You Must Debug

Posted by timothy on from the must-work dept.

Daniel Grund writes: "I noticed Macromedia has an SDK to help programmers write software that can generate SWF files. So, being curious, I skimmed their licensing agreement to see what I could see. Amusingly enough, sections 3f and 3g actually give the SDK user the legal obligation to debug their code! Of course, only bugs that cause the SWF files to be erroneous are required to be fixed. However, in theory, if you wrote a program that makes buggy SWF files, you could be sued by Macromedia (but only if you do it using the SDK I guess.) How's that for pressure on the Quality Assurance people; you not only annoy the customers if you fail, you also get the company sued."

3 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Fed up. by Triskaidekaphobia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They're probably fed up of irate users phoning them up when the flash plugin crashes playing a bad file.

    Remember windows says says

    "IExplore.exe had an exception in flash.DLL"

    and not

    "Britney.swf crashed the flash plugin DLL"

    It would be better if the plugin handled corrupt files more gracefully, but reminding flash developers of their responsibilities is a reasonable addition IMO.

  2. What's wrong with QA'ing your own product? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Macromedia has a reputation to uphold, which can be ruined by a malicious programmer using the SDK to create trojan horses.

    2. Debugging your product is a natural phase of development. Maybe not in the OSS world, but certainly in business.

    In short, this is nothing special. If you find a bug in their code, you get to report it, and if you have a seriously screwed up swf writer, they will bring it to your attention.

    They didn't say you'd be sued.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  3. Clarification: by tunah · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Amusingly enough, sections 3f and 3g actually give the SDK user the legal obligation to debug their code!

    Where their code is the user's code, not macromedia's (had me worried for a minute).

    This is not unreasonable (unlike certain other EULAs I could mention). This is a case where if you don't like the EULA, don't use the SDK. This is macromedia trying to help people without destroying their image. (Think of what microsoft's broken java did to people's perception of formerly 'universal' java applets/applications)

    --
    Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban