[swfmill] Question about swfmil output

[Mark Winterhalder]

On 3/4/07, Joseph Donth <jdonth at donth.com> wrote:
> Pardon the question but as a newcomer to this list I'm not sure what the
> "rules" are yet.
>
> Mark's comment "...you won't get any meaningful help here unless you come up
> with a convincing story that explains why you need to do it." prompted me
> want to ask what did Mark (and perhaps Bob?) mean? What kind of assistance
> falls into each category?

There are two big problems Flash developers face, particularly with
online games, that are connected to decompiling/reverse engineering.
One is "ripping" of online content (i.e., taking somebody else's SWF
and using it on your own site) and the other is cheating at online
competitions to gain prices. There are mechanisms to make both
difficult, and "PlayerTracker", as it appeared in the decompile in the
thread on the OSFlash list, points into the direction of the latter
(tracking the player's progress on the server).

That said, there are of course many legitimate reasons for reverse
engineering an SWF, and Swfmill can be very helpful in some of them.
If somebody has such a reason, it helps to explain it, otherwise most
will think they might help to break a mechanism a fellow developer
intentionally put in place.

But I'm not aware of any particular rules -- you're free to ask or
reply in any manner you like. Reverse engineering is OK, I,
personally, don't even have a problem with somebody trying to make #1
on a highscore list. I just think such an honour should be deserved by
either scoring high or having the 1337 skillz to manipulate the SWF on
one's own. :)

Mark