[Wolves] PDF

[Andy Wootton]

Alex Gay wrote:

> We had a discussion today on the merits of office software.  I was 
> saying that OOo done everything I needed as well as exporting to PDF.  
> I couldn't answer a question on how this was legal as PDF is owned by 
> Adobe.
> A quick google later confirmed that according to a lot of sites the 
> PDF file format is the IP of Adobe.  I've had a good rummage through 
> the OOo Licensees and the OOo page to see if I can find any thing on 
> this.  So does anyone know how OpenOffice.org can include a PDF 
> printer in it's product for free, without getting into a majour 
> battle over copyright and patent?
>  
> I know that there are other PDF printers available, is it because it 
> is a printer only?
>  
> Alex G 
>
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I think they own the software but they published the PDF specification 
so others can produce competing implementations. I suspect they learned 
their lesson when PostScript licencing prevented its adoption in the W** 
market.