On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 21:45 -0400, Hendrik Boom wrote: > On Tue, Jul 26, 2005 at 01:53:19AM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > > On Mon, 2005-07-25 at 23:06 -0500, Kent West wrote: > > > Carl Fink wrote: > > > >On Tue, Jul 26, 2005 at 04:35:50AM +0200, Anders Breindahl wrote: > > [snip] > > > >and Microsoft's reaction was to announce that the next version of MS > > > >Office > > > >will use the same zipped-XML format that OO uses. > > > > > > > > > > > Again, I'm probably wrong, but my understanding is that MS is planning > > > on using XML, but since XML is not a file format _per se_, but rather a > > > "format that describes a format", MS's use of XML does not guarantee > > > third-party readability. I especially doubt that MS has chosen to use > > > the same format as that used by OOo. If you can offer a link, I'd be > > > interested in reading about this; it could be a very interesting thing. > > > > KW is correct. > > > > Especially galling is that it will be "'encrypted' binary within > > XML" and covered by the DMCA. > > Any chance you could provide references for this statement? > The people I might have to convince need evidence. > They'll have questions like -- is everything to be encrypted? > Or just things the author specifies some king of DRM for?
Well, I remember reading it some months ago. Things seem to have changed, or been clarified, though, since then. http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_to_Open_Office_File_Formats/1117692086 June 2, 2005 When asked why Microsoft did not use the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) OpenOffice.org XML file format, Paoli answered, "Sun standardized their own. We could have used a format from others and shoehorned in func- tionality, but our design needs to be different because we have 400 million legacy users. Moving 400 million users to XML is a complex problem." Because of MSFT's love of DRM, though, I have to believe that their own DRM algorithms will be in there somewhere. Also, they may not distribute the schema, and thus make it a DMCA violation to reverse-engineer said schema. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson, LA USA PGP Key ID 8834C06B I prefer encrypted mail. "(Women are) like compilers. They take simple statements and make them into big productions." Pitr Dubovitch
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