Re: PDF, DRM, and "open" formats, part 1
- From: Bowerbird@[redacted]
- Subject: Re: PDF, DRM, and "open" formats, part 1
- Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 14:50:03 EDT
john said:
> In this post, I'll give an overview of the PDF standard,
> discuss the extent to which it's open and it's proprietary,
> and describe the optional DRM (digital rights/restrictions management)
> available with the format.
since it's so difficult to remix content out of a .pdf,
aren't most of these issues rendered moot anyway?
.pdf has some charms as an end-user format, to be sure.
but only a fool would use it as an archival format, because
the old saw still has truth: pdf is the "roach motel" format,
because your content goes into it, but it never comes out...
the correct answers here seem -- to me -- to be extremely simple:
the text format that is most "open" is a plain-text format. period.
save it as a .doc file, an .rtf, and even a .pdf, if you like. no harm.
the graphics formats that are most "open" are .jpg, .png, and .gif.
it'd be nice to throw .svg in the mix, since we need a vector format.
audio is .mp3 and .aiff. video is .wmf and .quicktime. migrate data.
migrate data freely. migrate data frequently. that's all. end of story.
-bowerbird