> > Take, for example, Adobe's pdf file format. The software Adobe > > makes and sells is proprietary. The pdf format is essentially an > > open one because Adobe voluntarily publishes very detailed > > information about the format in a timely manner. The result is > > that a great many software packages can create pdf files -- and > > there are also multiple readers. The fact that none of us has > > access to Adobe Acrobat's source code hasn't been a detriment to > > us -- but the fact that the pdf standard is (essentially) open, > > has been a benefit to all of us. > > The question is, did Adobe intend for this format to be open to all, > or was it because someone reverse-engineered it?
Adobe intended the format to be open. They published it in a book. The current version of the standard is available as a free download: http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/pdf/specifications.jsp Here is the relevant licensing information, as contained in the current version of the spec: Adobe desires to promote the use of the Portable Document Format for information interchange among diverse products and applications. Accordingly, Adobe gives anyone copyright permission, subject to the conditions stated below, to: * Prepare files whose content conforms to the Portable Document Format * Write drivers and applications that produce output represented in the Portable Document Format * Write software that accepts input in the form of the Portable Document Format and displays, prints, or otherwise interprets the contents * Copy Adobe's copyrighted list of data structures and operators, as well as the example code and PostScript language function definitions in the written specification, to the extent necessary to use the Portable Document Format for the purposes above AFAIK, the licensing information has not changed significantly since the first publication of the spec in 1993. ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
