Legal Concerns

[MariaY25]

Hi everbody :) . I got a big question for you. This has been on my mind for a
very good time now. I am currently developing an application in Visual Basic. I
wanted to insert Flash in it but I don't like that annoying Right Click menu.
So I turned to Director to solve this problem. Note that I am talking about
Flash MX 2004 Professional and Director MX 2004. When Director MX 2004
publishes a file, it has in its settings an option to disable that right click
context menu. So now I am planning to put a Director exported DCR (Shockwave
player) in my application instead of SWF (Flash player). Doing this I get rid
of the right click menu and I still maintain the functionality of my program by
importing the SWF into Director and then Publishing it. I said all this to
familiarize whoever reads this with my problem ;)

The big question is: is this okay with Macromedia? I know that disabling the
right click menu that Flash has using programming tricks like hooks or other
tehniques is not so legal. But... taking into consideration that Director
already publishes the file with no context menu... I have both programs with
licence so if I bought them, I think I can at least use them how I want. The
shockwave player is free too right? So... that's the question. Am I right or am
I wrong?

If you don't know the answer, can you at least help me contact *SOMEHOW*
anybody at Macromedia? The Support section on their site is terrible. I
searched 2 hours for an e-mail address and came up with nothing. If anybody of
you knows something about this, please reply.

Thank you a lot for your time! :)

Warm regards,
Maria Rhemisllas.

[Rob Dillon]

You can disable that menu in the Publish options right in Flash. It's
an option that you control.

--
Rob
_______
Rob Dillon
Team Macromedia
[url]http://www.ddg-designs.com[/url]
412-243-9119

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/[/url]

[MariaY25]

Hi, Thank you Rob for your answer, I hope you will be so kind as to tell me
more about this. I'm affraid that you didn't quite understand what I meant
about the menu. I can disable on publish, from Flash, the menu, but not
completely. In fact, I can stop some items in the RightClick Context menu from
showing but the menu still appears and has the "About Macromedia Flash Player
7" option. So this it's still NOT ok :). I want to assign another function to
the right click, and that annyoing menu from Flash Player keeps me from doing
that.

In the meantime, I have discovered your Licence Agreement for the Distribution
of the Shockwave Player. So now I can use Director to completely remove the
right click menu and safely develop my application :). But does the
Shockwave-Full-Installer contain the ActiveX I need? I am working in Visual
Basic so I need the Shockwave Player Active X. Is that contained in the full
installer which I will distribute with my application? Of course, I can use the
VB Installer to pack the Active X along with my program, but I would prefer to
distribute Macromedia's Player :).

So is this ok or not?

Thank you again, I hope you'll answer :). Maybe somebody can give me some
e-mail adress for a Macromedia official where to ask these question. I tried
the support section but it seems not to work properly, I got a "pAge Not found
Error".

Have a nice day :)

[MariaY25]

Does this site have an actualy *WORKING* support form? :). I was there, I
completed all information, name, description, all the other bunch of data, and
when pressing SUBMIT what happens? PAGE NOT FOUND error. Great :) And the
'Submit' button of the WebFeedback (where I was directed to report the error)
does not work.

So can anybody actualy contact the support team? I really have some important
questions but I can't contact their support team at all! No e-mail of a
Macromedia Official, no working support form... hmmmm....
:)

[Richie Bisset]

To be honest you're probably better posting any problems you have
here. You can search the archive here and find solutions to most
common director problems.

If it's more specific stuff then just post your problem with all
relevant details (eg. director version, platform it's running on, code
snippets and so on) and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.

Richie


On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:09:51 +0000 (UTC), "MariaY25"
<webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote:

>Does this site have an actualy *WORKING* support form? :). I was there, I
>completed all information, name, description, all the other bunch of data, and
>when pressing SUBMIT what happens? PAGE NOT FOUND error. Great :) And the
>'Submit' button of the WebFeedback (where I was directed to report the error)
>does not work.
>
> So can anybody actualy contact the support team? I really have some important
>questions but I can't contact their support team at all! No e-mail of a
>Macromedia Official, no working support form... hmmmm....
> :)

[Rob Dillon]

1. I am not an employee of Macromedia.
2. The Windows version of the Shockwave player for Internet Explorer is
an Active-X control.
3. According to the licensing agreement here:
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/shockwave/info/licensing/license.html[/url],
states in the Restrictions section that you cannot alter the code. If
there is a function built into the player that allows you to disable
the menu as you want, then it sounds like you can use that function as
you like.

Before you do anything that might be interpreted as violating someone
else's license, patent or copyright, get real legal advice, not the
opinions of people on a news forum.

--
Rob
_______
Rob Dillon
Team Macromedia
[url]http://www.ddg-designs.com[/url]
412-243-9119

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/[/url]

[MariaY25]

Sorry Rob :) but it just says in your signature here on the forum "Team
Macromedia" :). I thought you're one of their supporting staff. Thank you for
your explanations anyway, it doesn't matter if you work or not for Macromedia.
I think I`ll manage with the ActiveX after all, but it is not the ActiveX for
the Internet Explorer I want, but the ActiveX which my application uses. Are
they the same thing??? I don't know if ActiveX for IE it's the same with the
one I use to play DCR files in my program :). Anyway... I looked in the Toolbox
of VB.net and it says that the Shockwave Active X control is in
C:\Windows\System32\Macromedia\Director\SwDir.dll. All I`m wondering is:

DID DIRECTOR MX 2004 PUT IT THERE WHEN I INSTALLED IT, or DOES THE FULL
INSTALLER FOR THE Shockwave Player PUT IT THERE TOO WHEN IT GOT INSTALLED. i.e.
on a FRESH installed system, will the Shockwave Full Installer put it there too?

Sorry for pestering you like this but thanks for the explanations you gave me
so far :D.

[Rob Dillon]

The contents of that folder are installed by the player installer.

--
Rob
_______
Rob Dillon
Team Macromedia
[url]http://www.ddg-designs.com[/url]
412-243-9119

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/[/url]