ADOBE Opens SWF, FLV and F4V Formats

Last week Adobe Pressroom, released information regarding Adobe Open Screen: an initiative that involves not only releasing the SWF, FLV and F4V file format specifications, but also removes licensing restrictions around the next version of the AIR and Flash player.

Here’s a summary of the news from the press release:

• Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
• Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
• Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

To make this successful Adobe has partnered with other big companies like Intel, Motorola, LG, Nokia, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony Ericson, MTV, NBC etc. It would help Adobe provide consistent experience across all of the many existing Adobe Flash Platforms and other platforms which are currently not supported.

Adobe is also launching an open source porting project to port the Flash player to new devices. So you might eventually see Flash Lite applications being played on your iPhone.

Although, Open Screen doesn't really make FLV or SWF open source - it just makes the file format specifications open, and launches a community-driven porting initiative. However, it would definitely help those who want to squeeze out that extra bit from these file formats or know how these file formats exactly work.

There’s a pretty good FAQ for the Open Screen Project up for any more questions you have.