Massachusetts says it's open to multiple formats

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And those other MS Office supported formats?

Several MS Office products already support exporting and importing formats other than MS internal, many of which are missing the ability to support some features availablee in the Office formats. MS apparently is able to deal with this by popping up a dialog box which informs the user that some features are not supported in the selected output format. The user then selects whether to proceed or not.

So, just what is it about IRM, a function which 99% of real world users have difficulty understanding even when you explain it to them slowly and patiently, yet which you contend the market is desperately clamoring for, which is any different? If a document in Word format has IRM, the the programmers at Microsoft are probably bright enough to fashion a dialog box which says something like, "Use of this document is currently limited by IRM options. Please use your Master Decoder Ring to disable IRM functions before attempting to save in ODF."

And BTW, having tried to explain how IRM actually works to a few of those business executives who actually are asking for it (usually because they saw a blurb in the WSJ about how it would magically solve their SarBox problems, or some other drivel), I know they don't typically understand what it actually does, either.

As I've written before, the real issue here is whether the data, and the rights to do whatever a user needs with that data, whatever format is it stored in, belong to the person/organization which produces the data, or the organization which holds a license to the format. So long as the format license terms, free license or not, can potentially restirct a state government agency which entered the data, or whatever individual or organization which entered the data, that they cannot use some particular future product to access, use or 'reverse engineer' the data fomat, then the format license itself introduces a huge risk. There are many, many past examples of data archives which became unaccessable after one vendor or another was purchased, folded up and died, or simply lost market share and threw a tantrum, making it impossible to use another product to access data without violating a license.

An earlier poster gave the example of cars which would not run on 'standard' highways. I think a better example would be cars which required a key to unlock the door to get in or out, and a license to use the technology in the door key. Would you like to buy a car which required you to sign an license agreement which said that if you lost the door key you would not use any other key, tool, or method to try to open the door without permission from the original vendor? Would it matter whether the licensor promised that they would never, ever intend to prevent you from opening the car door at any future date? And if they really didn't intend to prevent you from opening it, then why would they need you to sign a license for use of the car door key format?

I wouldn't buy a car from that vendor, for risk of having something in the car (my children, for example), when the key broke off in the lock. State government officials are not supposed to be in the business of taking that sort of risk when there are other cost effective alternatives available.

Posted by: gardoglee   Posted on: 12/15/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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