[sword-devel] IMP file format

[peter]

'Proprietor 'is the owner.

Latin.

So the format is owned, irrespective of whether it is published (even
under GPL).

Th econnection betwen closed source and proprietary is not a given,
though it is often used - falsely as synonymous.

Peter


DM Smith wrote:
> On Nov 4, 2007, at 1:15 PM, jonathon wrote:
> 
>> All:
>>
>> I just looked at the wiki page
>> http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/index.php/File_Formats
>>
>> And under IMP it says:  "This proprietary file format is used by Sword
>> for import of all types of modules."
>> Since the API is distributed under the GNU GPL, how can that file
>> format be proprietary?
> 
> I think the term is used correctly.
> 
> It is non-standard. It was developed by the SWORD project and as such  
> is the intellectual property of CrossWire and under it's control. At  
> any time, the SWORD project may at it's discretion, change the  
> format. (Though I doubt it will ever happen.)
> 
> I don't think proprietary means secret and that it does not mean not  
> published nor made Free (GPL) or free (cost).
> 
> Also, the inputs to the module creation utilities are well published,  
> but it is deliberate that the formats of the modules are not  
> published. The internals of the modules is not part of the API.  
> People are free to reverse engineer them, but it is far easier to use  
> the SWORD API to access the modules.
> 
> Just my 2 cents.
> 
> Working together for His Kingdom,
> 	DM
> 
> 
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