Editing 2405: Flash Gatsby

{{comic
| number    = 2405
| date      = December 30, 2020
| title     = Flash Gatsby
| image     = flash_gatsby.png
| titletext = Protip: At midnight your excuse for not having read The Great Gatsby can switch from "I'm worried about violating copyright" to "I think my copy requires Flash."
}}

==Explanation==

This comic unfolds over the last few seconds of 2020 and the first few seconds of 2021. [[Cueball]] is attempting to do something requiring the overlap of two eras that only abut: creating an "unauthorized" adaptation of ''The Great Gatsby'', using the Adobe Flash plugin platform.

''{{w|The Great Gatsby}}'' is a classic novel written by {{w|F. Scott Fitzgerald}} in 1925. Copyright law in the United States of America, where ''The Great Gatsby'' was first published, was retroactively extended several times in the 1990s and early 2000s, causing the copyright on ''The Great Gatsby'' to extend [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/595567/why-the-great-gatsby-isnt-public-domain until the end of 2020]. In 2021, it finally entered the public domain so that it became legal to make a copy without violating copyright law.

{{w|Adobe Flash}}, formerly known as Shockwave Flash, is a web plugin that was commonly used by many websites in the late 1990s and 2000s. It allowed website creators to add animations, sound, and complex logic to build games, videos, and other interactive experiences. Presumably, the Flash version of the novel is some kind of animated cartoon, or perhaps even a game.

Over the years, Adobe Flash was repeatedly exploited by hackers, incurring heavy costs on {{w|Adobe Inc.|Adobe}} as they tried to update Flash against these attacks after rushing features out before stabilizing them. Newer technologies are now able to provide comparable features with more compatibility, more community involvement, and less risk, so support for Flash is being phased out by most web browsers. Adobe officially [https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html ended support for Flash] after December 31, 2020.

In line with Adobe's decision, [https://www.chromium.org/flash-roadmap#TOC-Upcoming-Changes Chrome is blocking Flash in January]. This will make [https://www.newgrounds.com/games entire internet culture histories spanning many years of making and engaging Flash experiences] unusable for most people. Therefore, Cueball's Flash version of ''The Great Gatsby'' will become legal at the very moment that everyone should stop using it.

In this comic, [[Cueball]] suggests that the withdrawal of Flash support occurs after the copyright expiration rather than simultaneously with it. This is most likely because the applicable copyright law in the United States states that the creative work becomes public domain at the end of the year 2020 and Flash gets disabled at the beginning of the year 2021. So it is conceivable (but not practical) that there is one second when the novel is public domain and Flash is still enabled.

By late 2020, Flash Player was already blocked by most browsers, but could still be whitelisted on individual sites. Using old versions of browsers, or workarounds to run blocked extensions, Cueball's Great Gatsby may still be readable after the official Flash End of Life date of January 1, 2021. Even with these workarounds, Flash Player itself will block Flash content from playing on January 12, 2021, making that the final death date for official modern versions of Flash.

After January 12, Flash content may still be accessible through older builds of Flash Player, and through various archival and emulation projects, such as the [https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash_showcase Internet Archive], [https://ruffle.rs/ Ruffle], [https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/ BlueMaxima's Flashpoint], and [https://www.getsupernova.com/ SuperNova].

The title wording has a number of possible meanings to it. It's the 'Gatsby' book via the medium of the electronic Flash format. Because of the briefest of availability (at best, a single moment), it appears and disappears again 'in a flash'. Being 'flash' is a very apt description of the millionaire Gatsby character himself ('Flash the cash' is being ostentatious). And, if the endeavor is not actually as legitimate as hoped, the word has also referred to felonious behaviors and forged copies.

The title text references using excuses for not having read a book considered a classic.  Before the end of 2020, a possible excuse for not trying to read it was it may not have been available in the format a person wanted it (such as via a flash program in this case) and it might have been illegal (copyright violation) to get it in that format.  After 2020, the new excuse to not read it could be a technical one (flash doesn't work/nothing capable of running flash).  Both excuses are quite flimsy; it's apparent the person really just doesn't care to read The Great Gatsby.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk using his laptop.]
:Off-panel voice: 3... 2... 1... ''Happy New Year!''
:Cueball: Okay, it’s up!
:Cueball: Annnnnd ... support was pulled, it’s down again.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:There's only a very short window of time in which I can post my unauthorized Flash® adaptation of ''The Great Gatsby''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Protip]] <!-- title text ->