Re: [gNewSense-users] Is ZIP a free file format?

[Luis Felipe Lopez Acevedo]

El jue, 27-08-2009 a las 20:32 +0200, Sam Geeraerts escribió:
> Luis Felipe Lopez Acevedo schreef:
> > El mié, 26-08-2009 a las 22:22 -0300, Victor Cortiano escribió:
> >> ZIP is fully documented since its creation, despite the first
> >> implementation (PKZIP) being proprietary software.
> > 
> > Where can I find that documentation? I only found a specification that I
> > think is not free[1].
> > 
> > 1. http://www.pkware.com/support/zip-application-note
> 
> It looks like that specification (more precisely [1]) is the full 
> documentation. But fully documented is not the same as free.
> 
> The spec is published under plain old copyright, so unauthorized copying 
> is not allowed. That is at least annoying. But the bigger problem is 
> section X of the spec, which says that the implementation of certain 
> parts of it requires a license. However, I fail to see on what grounds 
> this requirement is based, as the spec doesn't refer to any patents.
> 

That's the part I don't like.

> So I think we can say that it's not completely free. Free software that 
> uses it (IceCat, OpenOffice.org, OpenJDK) probably only implements the 
> "safe" parts.
> 
> [1] http://www.pkware.com/documents/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT
> 

I'll go to read about gzip instead.

Thanks.