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Subject:RE: A Question of Ethics From:Sean MacRae <sean -at- rcp -dot- co -dot- uk> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 17 Aug 2001 09:49:07 +0100
You contrast HTML with Word. A more appropriate comparison would be HTML
(W3C open standard) to RTF (MS proprietary standard).
Here, anyone can write an RTF authoring tool as well as an HTML tool. Most
document processors out there do this.
However, Microsoft can, and do unilaterally update the RTF format when they
like, usually upon release of a new version of Word. This can cause problems
with older RTF processors (read: rival WPs). They do make the specifications
freely available, after they have been finalised.
Same goes of Acrobat; the PDF format is now openly published, but controlled
by Adobe. There are third party PDF creators (we built an on-line
peer-review system that needed to convert incoming docs on behalf of any of
our editorial users; this could not legally be done within the terms of
Adobe's licences, so we had to research third parties).
Cheers,
Sean
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Re: A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat
> User Settings)
> From: mpriestl -at- ca -dot- ibm -dot- com
[...]
> I'll also point out that you're conflating open standards
> (such as HTML)
> with open source (such as various tools). HTML and Word are
> both industry
> standards - the fact that anyone with time on their hands can
> develop an
> HTML authoring tool has nothing to do with open source, and
> everything to
> do with the different ways that W3C and MS handle
> intellectual property.
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