MS Offer File Formats as Open Standards, Sorta Open

Typical bullshit.

MS Offer File Formats as Open Standards, Sorta Open: "You may have heard the news that instead of just supporting ODF, the format Massachusetts has chosen, Microsoft has announced they areoffering their file formats as an open standard. According to the press release from Microsoft, there are some co-sponsors, including Apple and Intel: Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)today announced it will take steps to offer the file format technology behindbillions of documents to customers and the industry as an internationalstandard. Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, the British Library, Essilor, IntelCorporation, Microsoft, NextPage Inc., Statoil ASA and Toshiba will co-sponsora submission to Ecma International, the standards organization, of theMicrosoft(R) Office Open XML (Extensible Markup Language) document formattechnology.Here's an article in ComputerWorld with some thoughts on what this could mean: Microsoft Corp. today said it will offer its Word, Excel and PowerPoint document formats as open standards, a move that could spark a war with technology rivals over standard document formats.Microsoft said it would submit its Office Open XML document format technology to the International Standards Organization (ISO) to be adopted as an international standard in time for the launch of the next version of its Office software suite, code-named Office 12. So, looks like it's war. Read the licenses on these file formats. That's my advice. If the license makes it impossible for GPL'd software to use the standard, then it isn't an 'open' standard. It's just an anticompetitive maneuver against Microsoft's only real competition. This is so basic. Does Apple not know? Intel? It is interesting and telling that Microsoft found so few to stand up with them, but two is enough to make the assertion that the standard, if approved, is not tied to one vendor. You may wish to review David A. Wheeler's Open Letter to Microsoft for many more details: Basically, if you choose Microsoft’s XML format, you have decided against open competition, in perpetuity. . . . If a specification cannot be implemented using the GPL, it discriminates against open source software (because the GPL is the most common such license). If a specification discriminates against open source software implementations, then it is not a specification that allows open competition. This was not as big an issue decades ago, when large-scale open source software systems were uncommon, but it sure is now. Andy Updegrove hassome quick thoughts on the subject on his blog, which I asked if I could share withyou. What does it mean? And then after that, I'll provide the full press release."

(Via GrokLaw.)