Proprietary file format

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A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, designed by the company or organization to be secret, such that the decoding and interpretation of this stored data is easily accomplished only with particular software or hardware that the company itself has developed. The specification of the data encoding format is not released, or underlies non-disclosure agreements. A proprietary format can also be a file format whose encoding is in fact published, but is restricted through licences such that only the company itself or licensees may use it. In contrast, an open format is a file format that is published and free to be used by everybody.

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Proprietary formats are typically controlled by a company or organization for its own benefits, and the restriction of its use by others is ensured through patents or as trade secrets. It is thus intended to give the licence holder exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others. [1] Typically such restrictions attempt to prevent reverse engineering, though reverse engineering of file formats for the purposes of interoperability is generally believed to be legal by those who practice it. Legal positions differ according to each country's laws related to, among other things, software patents.

Because control over a format may be exerted in varying ways and in varying degrees, and documentation of a format may deviate in many different ways from the ideal, there is not necessarily a clear black/white distinction between open and proprietary formats. Nor is there any universally recognized "bright line" separating the two. The lists of prominent formats below illustrate this point, distinguishing "open" (i.e. publicly documented) proprietary formats from "closed" (undocumented) proprietary formats and including a number of cases which are classed by some observers as open and by others as proprietary.

Privacy, ownership, risk and freedom

One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is that of ownership of created content.[ citation needed ] If the information is stored in a way which the user's software provider tries to keep secret, the user may own the information by virtue of having created it, but they have no way to retrieve it except by using a version of the original software which produced the file. Without a standard file format or reverse engineered converters, users cannot share data with people using competing software. The fact that the user depends on a particular brand of software to retrieve the information stored in a proprietary format file increases barriers of entry for competing software and may contribute to vendor lock-in concept.

The issue of risk comes about because proprietary formats are less likely to be publicly documented and therefore less future proof. [2] If the software firm owning right to that format stops making software which can read it then those who had used the format in the past may lose all information in those files. This is particularly common with formats that were not widely adopted. However, even ubiquitous formats such as Microsoft Word cannot be fully reverse-engineered.[ citation needed ]

Prominent proprietary formats

Open proprietary formats

Closed proprietary formats

Controversial

Formerly proprietary

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDF</span> Portable Document Format, a digital file format

Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF has its roots in "The Camelot Project" initiated by Adobe co-founder John Warnock in 1991. PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008. The last edition as ISO 32000-2:2020 was published in December 2020.

In digital printing, a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap. An overlapping term is printer control language, which includes Hewlett-Packard's Printer Command Language (PCL). PostScript is one of the most noted page description languages. The markup language adaptation of the PDL is the page description markup language.

A de facto standard is a custom or convention that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market forces. De facto is a Latin phrase, here meaning "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established".

An open file format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by an openly published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. An open file format is licensed with an open license. For example, an open format can be implemented by both proprietary and free and open-source software, using the typical software licenses used by each. In contrast to open file formats, closed file formats are considered trade secrets.

A document file format is a text or binary file format for storing documents on a storage media, especially for use by computers. There currently exist a multitude of incompatible document file formats.

The Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known as OpenDocument, is an open file format for word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and graphics and using ZIP-compressed XML files. It was developed with the aim of providing an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications.

XFA stands for XML Forms Architecture, a family of proprietary XML specifications that was suggested and developed by JetForm to enhance the processing of web forms. It can be also used in PDF files starting with the PDF 1.5 specification. The XFA specification is referenced as an external specification necessary for full application of the ISO 32000-1 specification. The XML Forms Architecture was not standardized as an ISO standard, and has been deprecated in PDF 2.0.

Digital Negative (DNG) is an open, lossless raw image format developed by Adobe and used for digital photography. It was launched on September 27, 2004. The launch was accompanied by the first version of the DNG specification, plus various products, including a free-of-charge DNG converter utility. All Adobe photo manipulation software released since the launch supports DNG.

The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is an ISO standard, originally created by Adobe Systems Inc., for the creation, processing and interchange of standardized and custom metadata for digital documents and data sets.

Open XML Paper Specification is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). In June 2009, Ecma International adopted it as international standard ECMA-388.

Office Open XML is a zipped, XML-based file format developed by Microsoft for representing spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. Ecma International standardized the initial version as ECMA-376. ISO and IEC standardized later versions as ISO/IEC 29500.

GeoPDF refers to map and imagery products created by TerraGo software applications. GeoPDF products use geospatial PDF as a container for maps, imagery, and other data used to deliver an enhanced user experience in TerraGo applications. However, GeoPDF products conform to published specifications including both the OGC best practice for PDF georegistration as well as Adobe's proposed geospatial extensions to ISO 32000, making them readable by applications such as Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, Avenza PDF Maps, Global Mapper, and others.

PDF/UA, formally ISO 14289, is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for accessible PDF technology. A technical specification intended for developers implementing PDF writing and processing software, PDF/UA provides definitive terms and requirements for accessibility in PDF documents and applications. For those equipped with appropriate software, conformance with PDF/UA ensures accessibility for people with disabilities who use assistive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, joysticks and other technologies to navigate and read electronic content.

The following is a comparison of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books.

The Microsoft Open Specification Promise is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert its patents, in certain conditions, against implementations of a certain list of specifications.

XML Data Package (XDP) is an XML file format created by Adobe Systems in 2003. It is intended to be an XML-based companion to PDF. It allows PDF content and/or Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA) resources to be packaged within an XML container.

Geospatial PDF is a set of geospatial extensions to the Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification to include information that relates a region in the document page to a region in physical space — called georeferencing. A geospatial PDF can contain geometry such as points, lines, and polygons. These, for example, could represent building locations, road networks and city boundaries, respectively. The georeferencing metadata for geospatial PDF is most commonly encoded in one of two ways: the OGC best practice; and as Adobe's proposed geospatial extensions to ISO 32000. The specifications also allow geometry to have attributes, such as a name or identifying type.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) was created by Adobe Systems, introduced at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in January 1993 and remained a proprietary format until it was released as an open standard in 2008. Since then, it has been under the control of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committee of industry experts.

References

  1. ↑ "Mirriam-Webster's Online Dictionary" . Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  2. ↑ ""Sustainability" Digital Preservation" . Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  3. ↑ "AAC License Fees". Archived from the original on 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
  4. ↑ "Ubuntu's commitment to only include completely free software by default means that proprietary media formats are not configured 'out of the box'...including DVD, MP3, QuickTime, Windows Media, and more." https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats. See also "Which proprietary formats should be avoided :: Openformats.org". Archived from the original on 2010-03-28. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  5. ↑ "Adobe Photoshop File Formats Specification". Adobe. Retrieved 2014-10-09.
  6. ↑ The RAR Archiver EULA (End user licence agreement) is embedded in installation files - - Quotation: "Neither RAR binary code, WinRAR binary code, UnRAR source or UnRAR binary code may be used or reverse engineered to re-create the RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary, without written permission of the author."
  7. ↑ [ dead link ]
  8. ↑ "tutorial: Rich Text Format (RTF)". Colorado State University. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  9. ↑ "4.3 Non-HTML file formats". e-Government Unit. May 2002. Archived from the original on February 18, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  10. ↑ Novell (2004-11-12), Novell Files WordPerfect Antitrust Lawsuit against Microsoft (PDF), retrieved 2010-03-13
  11. ↑ "The Novell Antitrust Complaint (as text) & A Law About Antitrust and Standards Writing". 2004-11-17. Archived from the original on 2005-12-30. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  12. ↑ "Gnu PDF - PDF Knowledge - Forms Data Format". Archived from the original on 2013-01-01. Retrieved 2010-02-19. Apparently Adobe introduced something newer called XFA (XML Forms Architecture) which doesn't seem standardized.
  13. ↑ A Quick Introduction to Acrobat Forms Technology (PDF), 2006-05-14, retrieved 2010-02-19, Adobe's XFA Forms is a closed standard that competes with the fully open W3C Xforms standard.
  14. ↑ ".ZIP Application Note" . Retrieved 2010-12-24.
  15. ↑ "Latest OOX-ODF FUD-Spat: States Prepare to Ban Zip and PDF Files" . Retrieved 2010-12-24.
  16. ↑ "PKZip Must Open Up" . Retrieved 2010-12-24.
  17. ↑ Duff Johnson (2010-06-10), Is PDF an open standard? - Adobe Reader is the de facto Standard, not PDF , retrieved 2014-01-19
  18. ↑ Leonard Rosenthol, Adobe Systems (2012). "PDF and Standards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-02. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  19. ↑ ISO/TC 171/SC 2/WG 8 N 603 - Meeting Report (PDF), 2011-06-27, XFA is not to be ISO standard just yet. ... The Committee urges Adobe Systems to submit the XFA Specification, XML Forms Architecture (XFA), to ISO for standardization ... The Committee is concerned about the stability of the XFA specification ... Part 2 will reference XFA 3.1
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