Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Or take a different approach: permit the proprietary formats but ensure that it is legal to reverse engineer those formats (including the DRM).
There are many reasons why companies prefer proprietary formats. If they are first to market, it may be that no standard exists. Companies may wish to expand upon existing standards. Standards may be encumbered by licensing restrictions and fees. Some standards are complex to implement, or are implemented inconsistently, which makes it difficult to produce bug-free software.
If we were to deny the right to create proprietary formats, we would be denying businesses the right to operate independent of their competition. Imagine the consequences of that. At best, progress would become insanely slow as people try to agree on the standard. At worse, the standards process would be hijacked to reflect the interests of the most powerful interests. (Yes, it is possible to abuse standards just as it is possible to abuse proprietary formats.)
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Indeed. There are often legitimate
competitive reasons for proprietary formats (There was in Amazon's case, which is one of several reasons I find the subject of this study to be a non-issue).
It's also worth noting, as long as it came up, that 'proprietary' does not automatically mean locked, exclusionary or horribly restrictive.