Re: Proprietary Software term

[David Kastrup]

Urs Liska <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi, 
>
> I'm pulling my hair because I don't manage to find a certain term to
> use in an abstract.
>
> We've talked about the issue over and over again, but how do we call
> it when using proprietary software prevents us from changing the tools
> to work with our data/documents? (Well, actually the same effect that
> prevents us to edit LilyPond scores with other programs, although
> that's not for license but only for practical reasons).

It's not for "license reasons" with proprietary software either since
reading the same file format with a program written from scratch would
be perfectly fine.  Patents may intervene in strange cases from
providing such a program, but copyright generally does.

At any rate, I'd use the term "lock-in" for tool-specific formats,
usually in the form of "vendor lock-in".

There is also the expression "walled garden" but it's more used for
things like app stores.

-- 
David Kastrup