An open format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a non-proprietary standards organization, and free of legal restrictions on use. For example, an open format must be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical licenses used by each. Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Open source software (OSS began as a marketing campaign for Free software. In contrast to open formats, proprietary formats are controlled and defined by private interests. A proprietary format is a File format which is covered by a Patent or Copyright which is intended to give the license holder exclusive control of the technology Open formats are a subset of open standards. An open standard is a Standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it
The primary goal of open formats is to guarantee long-term access to data without current or future uncertainty with regard to legal rights or technical specification. A common secondary goal of open formats is to enable competition, instead of allowing a vendor's control over a proprietary format to inhibit use of competing products. Governments have increasingly shown an interest in open format issues.
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The relationship between open formats and free and open source software is frequently misunderstood. Many proprietary software products readily use open formats, and free and open source software can often use proprietary formats. For example, HTML, the familiar open format markup language of the World Wide Web, creates the foundation for proprietary web browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer as well as free and open source browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical Meanwhile, OpenOffice.org, the free and open source desktop office suite, can manipulate Microsoft's proprietary DOC format, as well as open formats such as OpenDocument. OpenOfficeorg ( OOo or OOo) is a free Cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer The OpenDocument format (ODF is a File format for electronic office documents such as Spreadsheets Charts presentations and Finally, some companies have published specifications of their formats, making it possible to implement readers or writers for different platforms by different vendors, such as Adobe's PDF, and Microsoft's RTF. Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee əˈdoʊbiː ( is an American Computer software company headquartered in San Jose California However, some proprietary formats are covered by some form of patent restrictions that may forbid free and open source implementations (at least under certain licenses common for them, such as the GNU General Public License). A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an According to some critics, such formats inhibit competition.