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A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, such that the decoding and interpretation of this stored data is easily accomplished only with particular software or hardware that the company itself has developed. In contrast, an open or free format is a file format that is published and free to be used by everybody. Some proprietary format may be documented by the developer and released with a note that the format is subject to change without notice, and that the file should only be read or written with libraries provided by the developer. In other cases, the specification of the data encoding format may not be publicly documented at all; in some cases, the format may only be released to those who have signed non-disclosure agreements. A proprietary format can also be a file format whose encoding is in fact published but is restricted through licenses such that only the company itself or licensees may use it. Proprietary formats are typically controlled by a company or organization for its own benefit, and the restriction of its use by others is ensured through
patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
or as
trade secrets A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP) comprising confidential information that is not generally known or readily ascertainable, derives economic value from its secrecy, and is protected by reasonable efforts to maintain its conf ...
. It is thus intended to give the license holder exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others. Typically such restrictions attempt to prevent reverse engineering, though reverse engineering of file formats for the purposes of interoperability is generally regarded as being legal by those who practice it. For example, the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act allows for the reverse-engineering of file formats used for copyright management systems for the purpose of allowing users to exercise their fair use rights to copyrighted media. As control over a format may be exerted in varying ways and in varying degrees, and documentation of a format may deviate in many different ways from the ideal, there is not necessarily a clear black/white distinction between open and proprietary formats. Nor is there any universally recognized "bright line" separating the two. The lists of prominent formats below illustrate this point, distinguishing "open" (i.e. publicly documented) proprietary formats from "closed" (undocumented) proprietary formats and including a number of cases which are classed by some observers as open and by others as proprietary.


Privacy, control, risk and freedom

One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is the control of the files. If the information is stored in a way which the user's software provider tries to keep secret, the user may store the information by virtue of having generated it, but they have no way to retrieve it except by using a version of the original software which produced the file. Without a standard file format or reverse engineered converters, users cannot share data with people using competing software. The fact that the user depends on a particular brand of software to retrieve the information stored in a proprietary format file increases barriers of entry for competing software and may contribute to
vendor lock-in In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lockin, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs. The use of open standards and alternati ...
. The issue of risk comes about because proprietary formats are less likely to be publicly documented and therefore less future proof. If the software firm controlling that format stops making software which can read it, then those who had used the format in the past may lose all information in those files. This is particularly common with formats that were not widely adopted.


Prominent proprietary formats


Open proprietary formats

* AAC – an open standard, but controlled by Via Licensing * GEDCOM – an open specification for
genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
data exchange, controlled by
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
* MP3 – an open standard, but subject to patents in some countries


Closed proprietary formats

* CDR – (non-documented) CorelDraw's native format primarily used for vector graphic drawings * DWG – (non-documented) AutoCAD drawing * MAX – (non-documented) 3ds Max * PSD – (documented)
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...
's native image format * RAR – (partially documented) archive and compression file format controlled by Alexander L. Roshal * WMA – a closed format, controlled by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...


Controversial

* RTF – a formatted text format (proprietary, published specification, defined and maintained only by Microsoft) * SWF – Adobe Flash format (formerly closed/undocumented, now partially or completely open) * XFA – Adobe XML Forms Architecture, used in PDF files (published specification by Adobe, required but not documented in the PDF ISO 32000-1 standard; controlled and maintained only by Adobe) * ZIP – a base version of this data compression and archive file format is in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
, but newer versions have some patented features


Formerly proprietary

*
GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...
– CompuServe's Graphics Interchange Format (the specification's royalty-free licence requires implementers to give CompuServe credit as owner of the format; separately, patents covering certain aspects of the specification were held by Unisys until they expired in 2004) * PDF – Adobe's Portable Document Format (open since 2008 - ISO 32000-1), but there are still some technologies indispensable for the application of ISO 32000-1 that are defined only by Adobe and remain proprietary (e.g. Adobe XML Forms Architecture, Adobe JavaScript). * DOC – Microsoft Word Document (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification Promise) * XLS – Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file format (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification Promise) * PPT – Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation file format (formerly closed/undocumented, now Microsoft Open Specification Promise)


See also

* Open file format * De facto standard * Dominant design


References

{{Computer files Computer file formats