www/philosophy no-word-attachments.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /webcvs/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       07/06/03 23:21:18

Modified files:
        philosophy     : no-word-attachments.html 

Log message:
        Update regarding OOXML.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.44&r2=1.45

Patches:
Index: no-word-attachments.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /webcvs/www/www/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html,v
retrieving revision 1.44
retrieving revision 1.45
diff -u -b -r1.44 -r1.45
--- no-word-attachments.html    31 May 2007 12:44:13 -0000      1.44
+++ no-word-attachments.html    3 Jun 2007 23:21:11 -0000       1.45
@@ -54,18 +54,16 @@
 them.  You can manage to find the somewhat obfuscated ASCII text in
 the file by skimming through it.  Free software today can read some
 Word documents, but not all&mdash;the format is secret and has not been
-entirely decoded.  Even worse, Microsoft can change it at any time.</p>
+entirely decoded.  Even worse, Microsoft can change it at any time.
+Worst of all, it has already done so.</p>
 
 <p>
-In the future, they might
-use <a href="/philosophy/can-you-trust.html">Palladium</a> or some
-other &ldquo;treacherous computing&rdquo; facility in a new version of
-Word format, to make it utterly hopeless for any software to access
-the files without Microsoft authorization.  There are also reports
-that Microsoft is planning to use patented extensions to XML as the
-basis for a future Word format; anyone who implements free software to
-read those files could be sued for patent infringement by
-Microsoft.</p>
+Microsoft Office 2007 uses the patented OOXML format by default.
+(This is the one that Microsoft is trying to make an ISO standard by
+using its money power on national standards organizations.)  Microsoft
+offers a gratis patent license for OOXML on terms which do not allow
+non-free implementations.  We will soon to begin receiving Word files
+in a format that free programs are not allowed to read.</p>
 
 <p>
 If you think of the document you received as an isolated event, it is
@@ -76,13 +74,13 @@
 not to send or post Word documents.</p>
 
 <p>
-For about a year, I've made a practice of responding to Word
-attachments with a polite message explaining why the practice of
-sending Word files is a bad thing, and asking the person to resend the
-material in a nonsecret format.  This is a lot less work than trying
-to read the somewhat obfuscated ASCII text in the Word file.  And I
-find that people usually understand the issue, and many say they will
-not send Word files to others any more.</p>
+I therefore make a practice of responding to Word attachments with a
+polite message explaining why the practice of sending Word files is a
+bad thing, and asking the person to resend the material in a nonsecret
+format.  This is a lot less work than trying to read the somewhat
+obfuscated ASCII text in the Word file.  And I find that people
+usually understand the issue, and many say they will not send Word
+files to others any more.</p>
 
 <p>
 If we all do this, we will have a much larger effect.  People who
@@ -241,8 +239,9 @@
 Kevin Cole of the Gallaudet University in Washington,
 D.C <a href="/philosophy/kevin-cole-response.html">sends out this
 automatic reply message</a> whenever he receives a word
-attachment.</p>
-
+attachment.  (I think it is
+better to send the responses by hand, and make it clear that you have
+done so, because people will receive them better.)</p>
 <hr />
 
 <p>
@@ -285,7 +284,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2007/05/31 12:44:13 $
+$Date: 2007/06/03 23:21:11 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>