[gs-devel] PDF-A

[luke.kendall at cisra.canon.com.au]

On  5 Nov, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
>  At 9:22 AM +1100 11/5/03, luke.kendall at cisra.canon.com.au wrote:
>  >On  4 Nov, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
>  >> 	Adobe has released all patents related to PDF for use in 
>  >>   creating/viewing PDFs...
>  >
>  >And printing, and arbitrary transformation of it too?  I.e., it really
>  >is an open and free format?
>  >
>  
>  	Use of terms like "open" and "free" are asking for trouble.

Well, what I really mean is: can you use the information for any purpose
you can imagine, or have they restricted its use to a few specific
purposes which they approve of?

>  	As James noted about the PDF/IS spec, and as also present in  
>  the PDF/A spec, and even the standard PDF spec itself - Adobe has  
>  permitted (w/o license) the use of the specific patents related to  
>  PDF for the use in creating & viewing/rendering PDF. 

Ah, good: rendering too.  That's something.

>  	The language is quite specific. 

So, to pick a random example, deconstructing a PDF file and then using
the pieces to create a new and different SVG or other XML file would
seem to be excluded.  Doesn't sound very open to me.

luke