On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:10:40 -0400 Ayaz Hussain wrote: > > Hi, > > I was wondering about the nature of how some open sourced programs > like OpenOffice are able to open and save to file formats used on > other platforms such the Microsoft Word .doc file format. If reverse > engineering is not allowed in the license agreement for Microsoft > products and the only way to know how the .doc format works is through > reverse engineering to enable programs like OpenOffice to be able to > handle the files, then is it not license infringement? After all the > product is closed-source for a reason...even if it is "clean reverse > engineering", that becomes irrelevant, no? > > I don't ask this to speak ill of OpenOffice. I like it and use it, but > I want to know that it is entirely legitimate so that I am not a party > to any sort of copyright infringement practices. > > All I know is that the proprietary formats like .doc are not open to > outsiders, and hence for programs like OpenOffice to be able to > manipulate such files means that knowledge could only have been gained > though reverse engineering, because surely Microsoft didn't willingly > share it with us... >
Comes down to who you believe owns the data in your document. With DOC it was reasonably clear the document author did, and Microsoft would not have challenged this during the antitrust suit days. With DOCX Microsoft started by saying they owned the data in the EULA. With OOXML they did an about face because of the openness of ODF. More info which talks about how it is not necessarily illegal to reverse engineer programs, which are usually better protected than data by law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Binary_software -- Michael Linux: The OS people choose without $200,000,000 of persuasion. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
