Proprietary formats
Encyclopedia
A proprietary format is a file format
where the mode of presentation of its data is the intellectual property
of an individual or organization which asserts ownership over the format. In contrast, a free format
is a format that is either not recognized as intellectual property
, or has had all claimants to its intellectual property release claims of ownership. Proprietary formats can be either open
if they are published, or closed, if they are considered trade secrets. In contrast, a free format
is never closed.
Proprietary formats are typically controlled by a private person or organization for the benefit of its applications, protected with patent
s or as trade secret
s, and intended to give the license holder exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others.
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 patent
s.
concept.
The issue of risk comes about because proprietary formats are less likely to be publicly documented and therefore less future proof. 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
can not be fully reverse-engineered.
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
where the mode of presentation of its data is the intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
of an individual or organization which asserts ownership over the format. In contrast, a free format
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
is a format that is either not recognized as intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, or has had all claimants to its intellectual property release claims of ownership. Proprietary formats can be either open
Open format
An open file format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which can therefore be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical...
if they are published, or closed, if they are considered trade secrets. In contrast, a free format
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
is never closed.
Proprietary formats are typically controlled by a private person or organization for the benefit of its applications, protected with patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s or as trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s, and intended to give the license holder exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others.
Typically such restrictions attempt to prevent reverse engineering
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
, though reverse engineering of file formats for the purposes of interoperability
Interoperability
Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together . The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to...
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 patent
Software patent
Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...
s.
Privacy, ownership, risk and freedom
One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is that of ownership of created content. 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 files increases barriers of entry for competing software and may contribute to vendor lock-inVendor lock-in
In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs...
concept.
The issue of risk comes about because proprietary formats are less likely to be publicly documented and therefore less future proof. 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
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
can not be fully reverse-engineered.
Open Proprietary Formats
- AACAACAAC refers to Advanced Audio Coding, an audio compression format successor to the MP3 format.AAC may also refer to:-Aviation:* AAC, IATA airport code for El Arish International Airport, Egypt...
— an open standard, but owned by Via Licensing - GEDCOMGEDCOMGEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a proprietary and open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software...
— an open specification for genealogyGenealogyGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
data exchange, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
— an open standard, but subject to patents in some countries
Closed Proprietary Formats
- CDR — (non-documented) CorelDraw's native format primarily used for vector graphic drawings
- DWG.dwgDWG is a binary file format used for storing two and three dimensional design data and metadata. It is the native format for several CAD packages including AutoCAD, IntelliCAD and Caddie. In addition, DWG is supported non-natively by many other CAD applications...
— (non-documented) AutoCADAutoCADAutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design and drafting in both 2D and 3D. It is developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. First released in December 1982, AutoCAD was one of the first CAD programs to run on personal computers, notably the IBM PC...
drawing - PSD — (non-documented) Adobe PhotoshopAdobe PhotoshopAdobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
's native image format - RAR — (partially documented) archive and compression file format owned by Alexander L. Roshal
- WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
— a closed format, owned by MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Controversial
- DOCDOC (computing)In computing, DOC or doc is a filename extension for word processing documents; most commonly for Microsoft Word. Historically, the extension was used for documentation in plain-text format, particularly of programs or computer hardware, on a wide range of operating systems...
— Microsoft Word Document (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification PromiseMicrosoft Open Specification PromiseThe Microsoft Open Specification Promise , is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies....
) - XLS — Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file format (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification PromiseMicrosoft Open Specification PromiseThe Microsoft Open Specification Promise , is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies....
) - PPT — Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation file format (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification PromiseMicrosoft Open Specification PromiseThe Microsoft Open Specification Promise , is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies....
) - RTFRich Text FormatThe Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
— a formatted text format (proprietary, published specification, defined and maintained only by Microsoft) - SWFSWFSWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...
— Adobe Flash format (formerly closed/undocumented, now partially or completely open) - XFAXFAXFA 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 PDF 1.5 specification...
— Adobe XML Forms Architecture, used in PDF files (published specification, but not included in the PDF ISO 32000-1 standard; controlled and maintained only by Adobe) - ZIPZIP (file format)Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
— a base version of this data compression and archive file format is in the public domainPublic domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, but newer versions have some patented features
Formerly proprietary
- GIF — CompuServe's Graphics Interchange Format (open since 2004)
- PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
— Adobe's Portable Document Format (open since 2008), but the specification allows some proprietary extensions