Discussion on the technology of turning SWF back into FLA

Restore any SWF file to the FLA raw code perfectly! , I was shocked when I first saw the news. Before this, I believe that many of the friends like Flash animation using SWF scaner, flash-AX, Action Script viewer, etc. to decompose the SWF file inside the picture, music and even action script (action Scripts) and other information, For SWF RESTORE to FLA file, not too much hope, but today, it seems to be a reality, what is the software has such a great magic?

　　What is it?

IMPERATOR°FLA is a tool that restores a SWF file to a FLA file. As long as you have the Macromedia Flash MX version installed in your system, you can use this software to restore the compiled SWF file to the FLA source file, which contains all the pictures, movies, music, and even as information, and you can use the Macromedia The Flash software is recycled and recompiled into the required SWF file.

　　 Is it true?

Imperator°fla is very simple to use and can download the latest demo version on its official website (www.ave-imperator.com), if your Windows has Macromedia Flash mx (MX 2004) and DirectX More than 8 version, the software will automatically start after installation. On the use of software, you can see the relevant tutorial, "using the 3rd party software to" the SWF "into the" FLA "article.

The author first uses IMPERATOR°FLA to decompile a simple flash animation of his own making, this animation contains only some gradient information, not using any as. Compare the source file (Figure 1) with the FLA file generated by using SWF decompile (Figure 2), it can be seen that the decompile files generate more layers than the source file, but they have exactly the same library file, and the results of compiling the exported SWF file are the same, but the intermediate implementations are different.

Then I decompile a complex flash animation, the resulting FLA file is more complex, it is noteworthy that imperator°fla some mask and the effect of the gradient into a frame of the component, but for a little bit of flash production knowledge of friends, It's easy to replace these with tweened animations.

Because the demo version of the software shielding the as restore function, so I can not investigate the IMPERATOR°FLA restore SWF file action script, but from the restoration of the generated SWF file and the same view, IMPERATOR°FLA's ability is very outstanding, Although it cannot restore the SWF file to the same FLA file as the original file (the middle implementation is very different), we are fully able to use it to extract all the footage from the Flash animation and study the implementation of the excellent Flash animation.

　　 Implementation analysis

How incredible it sounds to restore the SWF to the FLA source file! However, from the popular online language of the counter compiler, SWF file decompile is not a novelty.

In the Java language, for example, there are at least one 3~4 of the Java language on the web, and according to the people who used it, some of these counter compilers work extremely well and can take those. The file at the end of class is not bad. and Microsoft's newest. Net Framework because of the use of the middle tier, the implementation of Cross-platform, Cross-language intermediate code, and in the context of similar virtual machines running, resulting in MSIL (Microsoft intermediate language) decompile to C # or vb.net source code is not difficult. And then to Zend Encoder compiled PHP source program For example, the Internet has Vulcan Logic Disassembler (PECL.PHP.NET/PACKAGE/VLD) can get PHP implementation of the operation code, if there is a very familiar with PHP master, Using the operation code to restore the PHP source program is also much easier.

The so-called decompile, according to the WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and use, is a method of copying and translating computer programs so that their codes and structures can be observed and analyzed. This method generally refers to the process of introducing the corresponding source program by analyzing the target program of computer software.

Imperator°fla translated the code in the SWF to make it readable and editable, although it was structurally different from the original, but its decompile was relatively successful. According to my guess, the Action Script Viewer and other flash cracking software should also be able to achieve this function from the technical, just take into account the Macromedia Company copyright relationship, not "dare" to put these functions into the software, from this view, imperator° The FLA is very likely to assume the risk of infringement.

In fact, a lot of people, including IMPERATOR°FLA, have noticed that the SWF file can be decompile. There is a recovery-protection in Imperator°fla that you can add protection code to your SWF file to protect your swf from Imperator°fla decompile, some specialized SWF actionscript protection tools, such as ActionScript Obfuscator (ASO) (Www.genable.com/aso) also appear on the network.

　　 Disadvantages

To understand and learn the ideas and principles contained in a software, it is necessary to analyze the source program of the software, and to obtain various parameters of the software, it is necessary to obtain the software source program to develop software compatible with the software. However, in order to gain an advantage in the market competition, software developers generally do not expose the source program. Therefore, decompile software is a common method used by software development technicians.

Anti-compiling is a very important means in software teaching, research, development and other occasions. In teaching and research, in order to learn foreign advanced software design concept, we often need to some foreign institutions and individual development programs decompile to carry out analysis and reference; Early Chinese enthusiasts to the foreign version of the software to decompile, find the source code of the target menu, and then write in Chinese to replace the corresponding foreign language, The length of the Chinese language must not exceed the length of the original. Insufficient available space to complete, and then compile, the final completion of the Chinese language software (now used is the use of the Chinese-made the principle of the development of specialized Chinese tools); In the fight against the virus, although each researcher works in a different way, But the techniques they use are similar: for example, executing a virus program in a compiled environment, observing how the virus behaves, and using the Decompile tool to analyze the structure of the code. Similar to the above situation, with the SWF file of the Decompile tool, we can more easily learn the classic flash production methods, from the technical and design ideas to improve the overall level of flash design.

However, the drawbacks of the reverse compilation is also obvious, such tools fall to some people do not respect the work of others in the hands of "villain", will become the weapon of its plagiarism, such violations we will discuss below.

　　 Tort?

The reverse compilation of software or flash works will undoubtedly cause copyright conflicts, so, whether or not to decompile violates copyright law? How can we use decompile to learn advanced design concepts and technical means to improve our level? It should be analyzed from the principles of copyright protection and relevant laws.

The WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and use: software for the legitimate users of the software to decompile the behavior, as long as not to use the information obtained to develop similar software, and copyright owners will not normally use the software conflict, Nor does it cause unreasonable damage to the rights and interests of copyright owners. Governments in general use this principle to conduct cases of infringement, such as the United States, the European Union and China's relevant legal departments agree: as long as the decompile is not for the purpose of replication software, in the implementation of the reverse compilation of the process involved in the replication is only a kind of intermediate transitional replication, The ultimate goal of decompile is to enable the public to obtain elements that are not copyrighted in the software, and such decompile is not considered infringement.

According to the above principles and related laws, we decompile software and Flash works to learn its ideas, processes, methods of operation, mathematical concepts, etc. are not infringement. That is to say, as long as your decompile purpose is vanilla (that is, for learning purposes only), it is not considered tort in law. But if you use decompile for other purposes, such as making other products for sale, you violate the original author's copyright.

In other words, we use IMPERATOR°FLA to decompile SWF to the FLA file, to study the design idea of Flash animation, the use of technology, does not constitute an infringement of the original author, but it is necessary to note that in this flash works of the original graphics, the overall form of expression ( The copyright of the SWF product is protected by copyright.

The author is not a legal expert in copyright, the understanding is only some fur, only generalities, interested friends can go to China's Intellectual Property Justice Protection Network (www.chinaiprlaw.com) read related articles, especially some Chinese people.

　　 Moral

When it comes to infringement, we can't help but explore the ethical issues in software development and design. We can learn the design idea of a software or work by the way of decompile, however, the other people's software or works to compile and modify, and add their own copyright information, not only violates the copyright law, is morally also shameful, a period of time before the uproar of the QQ million-yong version of the change from the wooden version of the event, and notorious Mwie browsers are such typical, for such immoral and even illegal behavior, hope netizens can boycott together.

Technology has always been a double-edged sword, will be a reasonable use of decompile, will be conducive to breaking the foreign Super software enterprises to the monopoly of software technology for small and medium-sized software enterprises to develop more compatible software, so as to promote the healthy development of software industry. In addition to the contempt and resistance of computer users, the perfect law is an effective way to solve the problem of infringement and unreasonable counter compiling application.