This is big: Adobe is removing restrictions on the use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications as part of their new Open Screen Project 2008.

When Mark Doherty emailed me to tell me about his post on Adobe’s Open Screen Project 2008, I wasn’t expecting such an important announcement.

Along with the opening of the SWF format, Adobe has also removed the licensing fees it used to charge for the Flash Player.

What does that mean for us? It means Flash _everywhere_. It means you picked the right platform to develop your skills on. It means Flash will be around for a long, long time!

Additionally, Adobe will be publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player, the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol, and the AMF protocol.

This is something that myself and others in the Flash community have been pushing for for a long time and I’m very happy to see that Adobe is finally confident enough in the strength of the Flash Platform to take this step. Bravo!

Update: A random thought: I wonder how much Apple’s stance against Flash on iPhone contributed to this. Looking at the members of the Open Screen Project, you see that the major handset manufacturers are all on board.

Further reading:

Adobe has released a video and further information for developers and Ryan Stewart shares his thoughts also.