proprietary format
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A proprietary or "closed" format is a format (i.e. data structure, protocol, or other data standard) which is considered to be intellectual property and may not be used without the consent of the format's owner. This often prevents or severely hampers efforts to be able to read or write data stored in those formats in free software due to a number of factors, including licensing requirements typically imposed by owners of proprietary formats as well as the secrecy which.
Examples of closed formats include: MP3, WMA, Microsoft Word .doc format, Microsoft Excel .xls format
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