On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 01:30:26PM +1000, Kevin Waterson wrote: > > Along with this software manufactures will need to support > DNG also. But its an open standard so what is the problem? well, the license > from > Adobe stipulates.. > "Adobe may revoke the rights granted above to any individual or > organizational licensee > in the event that such licensee or its affiliates brings any patent action > against Adobe > or its affiliates related to the reading or writing of files that comply with > the DNG Specification." > > How is that open?? If the format is not under the GPL and the source code not > available, then it is > next to worthless as a universal format.
There is no "source code" to a format. The definition of the format is public, and readily available. What else could you want? Note that the revocation above is only triggered if you try to sue Adobe. Basically it seems to be protection against the kind of mess we've seen with some other standards, where a patent holder gets somthing using their (undisclosed) patent written into a standard, and then sues everybody using the standard for patent violation. Try that with DNG, and you are no longer allowed to license DNG. (have you ever studied the history of the TIFF standard?) So, in effect, this means Adobe seem to be enforcing openness, and making it a requirement if you want to claim DNG support.
