Z:gnu-www-ja-digital-inclusion-in-freedom--34bea4-For instance, text files are o/en

For instance, text files are often distributed in the secret Microsoft Word format, which other developers have only imperfectly been able to decode and implement. This practice is comparable to publishing books in a secret alphabet which only officially approved scribes know how to read. Italian public television (RAI) distributes video in VC-1 format, whose specifications are available only under nondisclosure agreement from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Ironically, the SMPTE states this in a Word file, which is not suitable to cite as a reference.26 This standard has been partly decoded through reverse engineering.