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, 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. In contrast, an open or free format is a file format that is published and free to be used by everybody.

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Some proprietary format may be documented by the developer and released with a note that the format is subject to change without notice, and that the file should only be read or written with libraries provided by the developer. In other cases, the specification of the data encoding format may not be publicly documented at all; in some cases, the format may only be released to those who have signed non-disclosure agreements. A proprietary format can also be a file format whose encoding is in fact published but is restricted through licenses such that only the company itself or licensees may use it.

Proprietary formats are typically controlled by a company or organization for its own benefit, and the restriction of its use by others is ensured through patents or as trade secrets. It is thus intended to give the license 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 regarded as being legal by those who practice it. For example, the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act allows for the reverse-engineering of file formats used for copyright management systems for the purpose of allowing users to exercise their fair use rights to copyrighted media.

As 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, control, risk and freedom

One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is the control of the files.[ citation needed ] If the information is stored in a way which the user's software provider tries to keep secret, the user may store the information by virtue of having generated 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.

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 controlling 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.

Prominent proprietary formats

Open proprietary formats

Closed proprietary formats

Controversial

Formerly proprietary

See also

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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. ↑
  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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