Margaret Flanigan

The Giveaway of the Day today (today only) is an amazing piece of software that I have coveted for a long time but never really had enough need for to justify buying it.  But now that it is free (for today only) I snapped it up.

So what is it and why is it controversial?

It is a swf decompiler!  In plain English, it is a tool to enable you to take apart and edit a type of video file that you usually can’t work with at all.

If you work with graphics you know that a psd file has layers that can be taken all apart and manipulated any way you want, but a jpeg has no layers and is very hard to work with.  If you work with text you know that a doc file can be edited but a pdf cannot.

In video, a swf file is like a jpg or a pdf, you usually can’t edit it at all, but a flv file is like a psd or a doc that can be taken apart and played with.

The Trillex Flash Decompiler converts uneditable swf files into easily editable flv files!  WOW!  That is really powerful!

And that is why it is controversial…  An unscrupulous person can use it to take a video created by someone else and edit it or grab pieces of it or recaption it or just about anything they feel like doing.

Honest people use the decompiler to work on their own files or files in the public domain.  But it makes a lot of people very nervous to have a tool like this floating around.

If you have ever paid to have a video created you know how expensive it can be.  If you have ever created a nice one yourself you know how much work it can be.

How would you feel if you went to all that effort or expense only to find your video has been altered and used by your competitors or that someone else is taking credit for your artistic creation?

If you decide to take advantage of today’s amazing freebie I hope you use it responsibly.