4 ms·

Didn't adobe have the rights for PDF till recently when they made it open source?

• jws 16y ago
  PDF became an open standard in 2008, but before that the format was still well specified and openly published.
  • p858snake 16y ago
    It may of been well known, but anyone that tried to use it would of had to abibe by the license owner's wishes. Which according to other comments was Adobe not wanting it included which meant they couldn't without a lawsuit being introduced.
    • nitrogen 16y ago
      In most cases, unless a patent applies, if you don't get your information from the licensor (i.e. you create a "clean room" implementation) the official licensor of a format has no say in how you distribute your product. But, with the number of software patents granted accelerating, this approach appears to be less and less viable.