02.18.08
Big Blow to OOXML Interoperability: Video and Audio
What seems to escape many people’s attention is the inclusion of videos, sounds and other enclosures in things such as PowerPoint presentations.
Does that mean that ASF and WMV are excluded from the list of supported codecs? Of course not, it is a list of suggestions, and Any supported video type is supported, and the ECMA intentions are pretty clear:
we do not believe that preventing the use of other codecs is appropriate, as it will prevent innovation
And when it comes to address the reference to Quicktime, it is a patented format which requires royalty payments to MPEG-LA suckers.
Again, ECMA seems devoted to say: Good Bye Interoperability!
Where are these covered in the proposed standard? Are such peripheral files covered by the so-called patent ‘promise’? If so, does that mean that Microsoft’s video and audio patents are hereby declared void or rendered legally impotent? If not, why not?
If anything, this proves that OOXML is little more than a dud so deeply integrated with the Microsoft stack in its entirely, but then again, we knew this already. OOXML is not even cross-platform. Parts of it are Microsoft Windows-only, making this more severe an observation than the fact that OOXML is a partial (far from complete) written representation of Microsoft Office (version undefined because it does not exist and never will).
The FSF continues to warn about the effects of software patents [via Digital Majority], but the resultant incompatibilities with Free software seem not to bother Microsoft.
Dr. Moglen states that free software is a fundamental requirement for a democratic and free society which is surrounded by and dependent upon technical devices. He asserts that only if the software controlling these devices is open to all can we balance power equally.
His talk was about software patents: the danger that they present to a free society, to the free flow of information, and to future innovation.
Make of that what you will. █
