Open Source vs. Proprietary: can you spell Betamax?

One news item says: "'We [Adobe] have a strong position with the
publishing industry. Microsoft is unknown, unproven, and not trusted."
Eschbach added that another clear advantage of using Adobe's PDF format
is that users can download content across multiple platforms to view on
a wide variety of devices. "Cross-platform ability is hugely important.
Just supporting a Windows platform is not enough." Microsoft in turn,
touted its digital rights management software and focus on e-book piracy
protection: "That was the principal mistake that the music industry
made," said Microsoft VP Dick Brass. "Our industry won't make the same
mistake... We'll beat the pirates to market." (Wired.com 28 Aug 2000)

WL: WAI has folks who participate in various efforts to preclude the
possible (likely) proliferation of competing standards in this vital
effort for the future. Since it is likely that much of the distribution
of and information about these materials will take place on the Web, it
is vital that we learn about these efforts at standardization and let
the views of how this might affect accessibility issues.

W3C as an organization apparently feels that this activity is outside
their purview since the medium itself is not part of Internet/Web
standards. I would hope that the fact that they have sections devoted to
"open software" and "e-commerce" might enable them to find room for
participating in the e-book explosion, particularly in view of the very
close ties with the dissemination of content on the Web.

--
Love.
ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE

Received on Wednesday, 30 August 2000 09:54:34 UTC