Bob Velke wrote: > Charlie said: > >> Maybe if you packaged Genbridge as a separate product, and made it >> capable of writing out data files.... Then we wouldn't even need >> GEDCOM any more. > > It is available to developers as a standalone module (FTM 2008 uses it, > among others) but it cannot _write_ proprietary data files because that > would be a copyright violation. ?? Any intellectual property issue that arose from writing a file in a proprietary format would also arise from reading it, I would think. And generally the issue is patents, not copyrights. I can't think of any copyrightable aspect of a file format, other than the vendor's documents concerning it. I can think of other reasons not to write, including (1) being bound by the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, or the fact that (2) writing is much harder to do correctly than reading. I've also declined to make source code available for file formats I've reverse-engineered. - Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew