PDF format (was: Re: BitKeeper licence critic)

[Florian Weimer]

MJ Ray <markj at cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

> Some of us are concerned by any "standard" that is controlled by a single
> vendor company.  The same for PDF as it is for Java.  That on its own does
> not make it not free (for some value of freedom), but it does make it a
> little worrying: what if the vendor decides to do X, Y or Z to block Free
> Software tools?  Can we successfully fork the standard?

We can just keep to older versions of the standard.  In other
contexts, proprietary software vendors to it all the time, so why
shouldn't we be able to do it, too?

Having standards is neiter necessary nor sufficient for an open
infrastructure.

-- 
Florian Weimer 	                  Weimer at CERT.Uni-Stuttgart.DE
University of Stuttgart           http://CERT.Uni-Stuttgart.DE/people/fw/
RUS-CERT                          +49-711-685-5973/fax +49-711-685-5898