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Re: [News] Microsoft takes another shot at JPEG with HD Photo format

__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Thursday 08 March 2007 22:30 \__

> http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/03/08/microsoft_hd_photo/
> 
>     [...]
> 
>     JPEG is one of those dinosaurs in the IT industry that just won't go
>     away. Supported by virtually any software and device that has to
>     deal with image files, JPEG has been the standard for color-rich
>     images for many years. Despite the fact that JPEG comes with several
>     disadvantages, such as ugly artifacts in compressed images, the
>     format remains more popular than PNG or JPEG 2000.
> 
>     Microsoft, however, believes it is the right time to once again try
>     to replace JPEG with a more modern and more capable image format.
>     Developed under the name "Windows Media Photo" the company released
>     the specification for its "HD Photo" format in November of last
>     year. Today, Microsoft published a plug-in that allows owners of a
>     copy of Photoshop CS2 or CS3 to take the format for a spin.
> 
>     [...]
> 
>     HD Photo beta is offered as a free download and is compatible with
>     Photoshop CS2 and CS3 as well as Windows Vista and XP. HD Photo is
>     also included in Microsoft's .NET Framework 3.0.
> 
> Presumably, there are several other concerns.
> 
> [1] DRM.  Photos, after all, are copyrighted images.
>     How is HD Photo addressing this problem?
> 
> [2] Encouragement for developers of Microsoft tools to
>     generate HD Photo images instead of JPEG, PNG, or
>     BMP images.
> 
> [3] Encouragement for developers of *websites* to use
>     and generate HD Photo images.
> 
> [4] Encouragement of users to visit those websites,
>     presumably by modification of the browser to disallow
>     illegal visits to websites still providing other
>     photos.
> 
> [5] How to slap Microsoft silly if it ever attempts
>     some of these. :-)
> 
> [6] How to include support (including DRM, if applicable)
>     for HD Photo in OSS code such as KDE/Qt, Gnome/Gtk, and
>     Firefox widgets, should it even make sense to do so.

Exactly. These are the concerns. DRM is one, but let's not forget that
Microsoft can 'extend' this format at any time and poison the Web with it.
It already does it with its other new 'technologies'.

-- 
                ~~ Best wishes 

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