First, before May 1, 2008 the official specs for the swf format couldn't be used to create alternative implementations. If you read them, you were tainted. Even after, the spec didn't contain essential info like details about the RTMP protocol.
Second, it took an awful lot of time for Adobe to release specs, and the specs aren't really useful since devs from Gnash and SwfDec did a better job by reverse engineering, which is still legal.
And it can't help when Adobe is suing Wowza (as in, right now) or when it pulls rtmpdump from SourceForge with a DMCA request (May 26, 2009).
Third - open, as in public specs, doesn't mean it's a standard. It would be a standard if you were allowed not only to create an alternative implementation (debatable if you can) but if you were able to improve on it, improvements which may also be accepted in the standard.
And a real open standard requires a standards body, not a company that is willing to sue using patents whenever they feel like they aren't in control anymore.
If anything, the "opening" of those specs means absolutely nothing. Flash is still as closed as it was prior to May 2008. The only difference between now and then is the maturing of projects like Red5, but such projects are in a gray legal area. And THE alternatives to the official Flash client are still mostly unusable.
Go ask the Gnash or SwfDec developers about the openness of Flash.
First, before May 1, 2008 the official specs for the swf format couldn't be used to create alternative implementations. If you read them, you were tainted. Even after, the spec didn't contain essential info like details about the RTMP protocol.
Second, it took an awful lot of time for Adobe to release specs, and the specs aren't really useful since devs from Gnash and SwfDec did a better job by reverse engineering, which is still legal.
And it can't help when Adobe is suing Wowza (as in, right now) or when it pulls rtmpdump from SourceForge with a DMCA request (May 26, 2009).
Third - open, as in public specs, doesn't mean it's a standard. It would be a standard if you were allowed not only to create an alternative implementation (debatable if you can) but if you were able to improve on it, improvements which may also be accepted in the standard.
And a real open standard requires a standards body, not a company that is willing to sue using patents whenever they feel like they aren't in control anymore.
If anything, the "opening" of those specs means absolutely nothing. Flash is still as closed as it was prior to May 2008. The only difference between now and then is the maturing of projects like Red5, but such projects are in a gray legal area. And THE alternatives to the official Flash client are still mostly unusable.
Go ask the Gnash or SwfDec developers about the openness of Flash.