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Originally Posted by Redcard
Umm.
EPUB is released under an open license and in open formats. The express intent of open formats is to be used in this manner.
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No, they aren't. An open format is "open" so people can implement and use that format for free, to guarantee interoperability and make sure the format stays available far into the future. The possibility to extend an open format is only a possibility, not an express purpose.
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I don't understand why people are surprised when open protocols are extended. This website you're on right now exists solely because people took open protocols and extended them.
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Of course an open protocol or format can be extended; that is no problem, if the extended format stays completely backwards compatible, and also free and open. This is not the case with the iBook-format, though.
And it would be good if the extensions are standardised, or you'll have 5 formats that all read the original spec, but when an extension is used, the formats become incompatible. Then you get something like HTML-hell, caused by Microsoft and Netscape in the 90's, which took 15 years to solve.
I hope the eBook-companies learned from that mess.