If we want to keep the Internet, and all computer related technology, free and open for everyone to have equal access to them we need to keep building on free and open standards. If not, we will run into a situation on which whoever has a patent over a standard can have the power to keep people out that at their will.
All standards should be open and freely available for everyone to use, even though some of the software using them isn't and people has to pay to use it. But even that software has to make use of those standards, so it can use files created using competing software. There is no valid reason for users to be locked into using a particular software at all, since the use of any software is something that has to be decided by the user itself.
Software developers should be competing by giving extra value, not by making users content or files incompatible to use on other platforms.
Just because some individuals might make wrong use of open and free standards, it doesn't mean that the majority of users which are doing the right things should be punished along by not allowing them to use their files on the software they prefer. Most of won't do anything illegal if we are given a way to do things legally, and open standards are the best way to give users that chance.
So, let's make the rules of the game clear using open and free standards. There is a need to let the people to be the ones deciding by themselves what they want.
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