[PLUG] Microsoft Earnings Report

Paul Heinlein heinlein at madboa.com
Fri Oct 24 06:26:02 UTC 2003


On Thu, 23 Oct 2003, Aaron Burt wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Oct 2003, Brian Quade wrote:
>
> > I have some questions about this, if anyone knows the answers....
> > How much can MS isolate themselves and their market by using
> > proprietary file formats that they "own".  For example, OpenOffice
> > supports most MS file formats (doc, xls, ...).  Is this legal?
> > Can a company patent a file format?
>
> Not as such.  A format is just a way of arranging info.  Can you
> patent the order in which you shelve your books?  No.  Can a friend
> figure out how you shelved your books and do the same with hers?
> Yes.  However...

You can, however, copyright your arrangement. The Dewey Decimal
Classification system is under copyright, and its owner expects
payment:

  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/21/143231
  http://www.oclc.org/support/questions/dewey/default.htm

There was a widely cited Newsday article about Dewey's owner suing for
licensing fees, but the article is apparently no longer available on
newsday.com.

--Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com>




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