[cc-community] CC using non-standard Microsft formats?

Evan Prodromou evan at prodromou.name
Fri Jun 23 13:50:52 EDT 2006


On 6/23/06, Mark <gemtraveler at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi, I took a look a the new Microsoft Office deal with the Creative
> Commons license being part of their montage.


Yeah, I think it looks pretty cool!

Does CC have provisions for non-standard file formats with their
> License?


Does it seem likely to you that CC would have some anti-Office license
requirements, yet still collaborate with MS to create an Office add-in for
CC licenses?

I would like to see CC not allow non-standard file formats
> because this severely limits sharing and also people can get arrested
> still for sharing non-standard formats.


Office file formats are by far a de facto standard for word processing
documents, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. They are supported by
Free Software programs like Open Office, Koffice and AbiSuite.

Your second point is misleading. There are problems with circumventing copy
protection schemes with some non-standard formats, but it's not the
non-standardness that makes them illegal.

Bringing easy Creative Commons licensing to the millions of Microsoft Office
users in the world is an exceptionally good forward step. Instead of ad
hominem attacks against Microsoft just because they're Microsoft, it might
be better to congratulate them for making this move.

--Evan
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