Re: Proprietary Software term

[Urs Liska]

0

Am 18. August 2018 13:08:19 MESZ schrieb David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
>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.
>

Indeed, that wasn't expressed too well. What I meant is that CodaMusic's policy 
to use binary non-released (for some time even encrypted) file formats strongly 
discouraged anyone to make a program use these files. In LilyPond's case it's 
"only" the sheer size of the task.

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

Yes, that's exactly it.

Urs

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