This may not be news to some of you as this information has previously been posted to the chattyfig Flashcomm list (which is currently down) but I think it may be more visible here, thereby eliminating further questions or confusion.
As you may be aware Adobe had previously announced the existence of a tool that would allow the conversion of FLV files (the audio portion thereof) to mp3. FLV uses (when recorded by Flash Media Server) the Nellymoser audio codec which is near impossible to transcode unless you pay licensing fees to Nellymoser directly. This shuts the door on many applications such as Flash based podcasting.
After the question regarding this tool came up once again on the Flash Media List, Steve Wolkoff (FMS Product Manager at Adobe) added the following comments:
Start quote: "[...] We found a clause in our license agreement with NellyMoser that does not allow Adobe to distribute a transcoder outside of FMS. I.e. - the tool would have to be delivered with FMS, and only used with FLVs created by FMS. Otherwise, we would be in violation of our license agreement.
I'm not sure why our license is structured in that way, as I was not around when it was negotiated, but it's a fact of life at this point. I can't really comment on legal issues, so I won't be able to provide much more detail here.
However, We may be able to work around this with some installer and EULA wrangling - i.e. bundle the tool with the FMS installer, and add language to the EULA prohibiting use with any other server technology - I am working on verifying that. In the meanwhile, we have done some private beta testing with this tool, and found a number of issues. We have developers working on it currently and we should have another small private Beta in a few weeks. (Unfortunately, the Betas have to be private at this point, due to the license issues noted above). If this EULA workaround is ok with Legal, we will try to move to a public Beta soon after.
Sorry, no time frame at this point." End quote.
Hopefully this will clarify the situation surrounding this tool for the time being.
As you may be aware Adobe had previously announced the existence of a tool that would allow the conversion of FLV files (the audio portion thereof) to mp3. FLV uses (when recorded by Flash Media Server) the Nellymoser audio codec which is near impossible to transcode unless you pay licensing fees to Nellymoser directly. This shuts the door on many applications such as Flash based podcasting.
After the question regarding this tool came up once again on the Flash Media List, Steve Wolkoff (FMS Product Manager at Adobe) added the following comments:
Start quote: "[...] We found a clause in our license agreement with NellyMoser that does not allow Adobe to distribute a transcoder outside of FMS. I.e. - the tool would have to be delivered with FMS, and only used with FLVs created by FMS. Otherwise, we would be in violation of our license agreement.
I'm not sure why our license is structured in that way, as I was not around when it was negotiated, but it's a fact of life at this point. I can't really comment on legal issues, so I won't be able to provide much more detail here.
However, We may be able to work around this with some installer and EULA wrangling - i.e. bundle the tool with the FMS installer, and add language to the EULA prohibiting use with any other server technology - I am working on verifying that. In the meanwhile, we have done some private beta testing with this tool, and found a number of issues. We have developers working on it currently and we should have another small private Beta in a few weeks. (Unfortunately, the Betas have to be private at this point, due to the license issues noted above). If this EULA workaround is ok with Legal, we will try to move to a public Beta soon after.
Sorry, no time frame at this point." End quote.
Hopefully this will clarify the situation surrounding this tool for the time being.
It would seem to me that Adobe, though maybe not previously involved with the negotiations, would use its staggering presense and try to re-negotiate a deal with the codec/transcriber. I'm not saying the livelyhood of Adobe is on the line with this particular blub-up, however it surely discredits the 'community-involvement' that Macromedia has become known for.
I hope Steve Wolkoff (and crew) take to heart the task of 'freeing' the codec issue.