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Is this a joke?  They made us do all that work find new ways to insert Flash into a page and then a year later decide to come up with the cash?  I blame EOLAS for this entire mess, they were pretty much just trying to screw MS for a boat load of cash and didn’t go after anyone else.

it was about time…

Wow, read the comments at the bottom.  Lots of ignorant people over there…

Funny thing is most people will prob still continue to use swfObject for other reasons anyway.

What about people using swfObject. Will they need to go back to object embed?

no.

Originally posted by tiran
no.

phew

Very interesting!

They have no idea how much of my time went into fixing client websites because of this joke.  What’s the invoice address of Microsoft?

The click-to-activate thing actually did a lot of good. It made people think about XHTML valid ways of embedding Flash movies, and it also helped people to understand about some SEO techniques (replacing HTML content with the Flash movie). Yes it is good that Microsoft now have a license but that doesn’t mean we should all go back to dumping the <object> markup directly into the HTML.

The thing that annoys me though is that Microsoft have obviously licensed the technology now because the <object> element is required to embed Silverlight into HTML. So they screw Flash developers by adding the click-to-activate thing and then suck Silverlight developers “man sausages” by removing it. Microsoft really are a bunch of [insert profanities here] under handed [insert more profanities here].

Um, EOLAS sued Microsoft so people would not use IE anymore, so you guys are sorta kvetching without warrant.  The problem is the patent system and how people are patenting everything under the sun.

Let’s see, IE, Firefox, Netscape, etc ALL used the <object>/<embed> tags to implement Flash.  EOLAS comes along and JUST sues Microsoft so people will have problems and quit using IE.  Firefox fans pop up everywhere and Mac users use this as a reason to point out how bad MS sucks.  They don’t even consider the fact that at any time EOLAS could do the same thing to THEIR browsers, or even ALL browsers.

Yes the entire ordeal sucked, but why blame Microsoft?  If they decided to pay them all that money to support a product they were developing (Silverlight) what’s wrong with that? In case you didn’t know MS is a business, and the purpose of a business is to take care of itself and make money, not worry about a product they don’t even make.  It’s not like Macromedia/Adobe even for a second thought about coming up with a solution for making THEIR BROWSER ADD-ON work with the most widely used browser available.

In the end, EOLAS got rich by screwing all of US DEVELOPERS and the patent system, MS lost tons of money and was harshly criticized, Adobe didn’t do anything to help and came out unscathed, and Firefox (which is bankrolled by anti-MS for-profit companies) saw its user base go way up.

Adobe did try to help, they updated a lot of their auto-generated HTML templates (used by the Flash IDE etc) to add Flash content to the HTML in a similar way to SWFObject. They didn’t need to do that because the click-to-activate thing has nothing to do with them, but seeing as 50% of people are still using IE they decided help out Flash developers instead of ignoring the problem.

Microsoft got what was coming to them, the same is true for the recent fine they received from the European Commission. If Microsoft didn’t try to screw everyone all of the time then maybe they wouldn’t lose so much money.

Anyway, whatever. I guess there is nothing we can do apart from going with the flow and dealing with these problems when they get thrown our way.

But the click to activate would have had EVERYTHING to do with them had EOLAS gone after everyone, not just the people with money.  And who’s to say they won’t in the future?

Microsoft got what was coming to them because they used the <object> and <embed> tags?  Really?  What about all the other browsers that do the same thing?  Internet Explorer has nothing to do with Microsoft scaring companies or being a monopoly - its a browser that many people use and we have to support.

You can’t blame a business for being a business, and whether you or I like it, screwing the competition is capitalism.  Such is life

EOLAS doesn’t have the patent to using <OBJECT>/<EMBED> tags…they have the patent to the use of ActiveX which is what IE uses to play swf files. That’s why MS got sued and other browsers didn’t.

When I read this I had the same reaction. Now with the release of Silverlight, MS finally sees the activation hack as a problem even though we’ve been complaining since day one. However I feel at this juncture MS could have released this update without ever announcing it and very few people would have ever noticed.

Secondly, raise your hand if you need “time to prepare for the change” or if you are going to be jumping back over to the OBJECT/EMBED method. Anybody? <crickets>

Like Nutrox says, SWFObject and the like have far reaching advantages aside from getting around the “click to activate feature” in IE.

Lastly, souichi is correct. EOLAS didn’t go after the other browsers because IE was the only one using ActiveX to handle the object/embed tags. Microsoft’s implementation of ActiveX was the patent issue, not the tags. And the issue wasn’t going after the big bad money man either. “Can’t blame” EOLAS “for being a business” and protecting their intellectual property.