On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 8:19 PM, Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves <<a href="mailto:justivo@gmail.com">justivo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Free formats. There is a big difference between open and free<br>
formats, and I think one of these days I will write an article about<br>
it. Basically, though, Xvid is open, Theora is free. Wikimedia won't<br>
use the likes of Xvid because of the patents associated with the<br>
format, so even though a format may be open, it doesn't mean it's<br>
"free" of patents and other restrictions.<br>
</blockquote><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>I generally understand the difference of both... but in wikipedia the definition of it: An <b>open format</b> is a published specification for storing digital
data, usually maintained by a non-proprietary standards organization,
and free of legal restrictions on use. Maybe this is wrong to understand right?<br><br>But thats ok I like free format instead of open format for the purpose (since in Spanish there is no ambiguity for free which means "libre" :-)<br>
<br>One of the questions that I want to be clear is about PDF... I know it is an open format... but can be considered free format? As far I know there is no restrictions about it use or any patent claim that Adobe own... and there is the project <a href="http://gnupdf.org">gnupdf.org</a> that intent to implement a high-quality library for the PDF file format, but since you don't even mention it on SOM I'm not clear about the status of it...<br>
<br>I really believe that PDF must be supported since is an ISO standard and can be implemented in free software.<br clear="all"></div></div><br>-- <br>JorSol<br><a href="http://jorsol.blogspot.com">http://jorsol.blogspot.com</a>