RMS sees other, more direct threats. Patents, Trusted Computing and the DMCA:
http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1310231&tid=29 "...Microsoft, which says it is our enemy. Microsoft would love to make useful free software effectively illegal, and has plenty of money to pay lawyers to use whatever avenues governments provide them. " Formats can be open and owned at the same time, if a patent is used. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html "Word processors such as Microsoft Word could use treacherous computing when they save your documents, to make sure no competing word processors can read them. Today we must figure out the secrets of Word format by laborious experiments in order to make free word processors read Word documents. If Word encrypts documents using treacherous computing when saving them, the free software community won't have a chance of developing software to read them--and if we could, such programs might even be forbidden by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." What the law won't give Microsoft, a crippled BIOS can. Just look at the tremendous extentions to "normal" copyright protection DVDs have given the movie industry: advertisements that you can't skip, regional versions and content that can only be played on non-free or non-US software. As the demise of DVD Xcopy, these extensions to copyright have been given the force of law by the DMCA. The combination of these new threats makes the old "catch up" game look like child's play and is the best reason to avoid the formats. The alternatives are easier and more trustworthy. On Sunday 30 January 2005 06:22 pm, -ray wrote: > .... > I don't see this with MS. They can and probably will change the > "standard" at will to keep competitors at bay and always playing > catch-up. I doubt the standard is 100% documented, and wouldn't surprise > me if their own products didn't follow their own standards. With their > history of intentionally breaking standards, anti-competitive practices, > and talk of the "disease" of open-source, how can MS be trusted to > sincerely provide an Open Document format for the benefit of everyone? > > > ray
