Is PDF copyrightable?

Is Portable Document Format (PDF) copyrightable? I do not think so.

Here are the first two paragraphs in the section 1.6 titled "Copyright permission to use PDF":

          The general idea of utilizing an interchange format
          for final-form documents is in the public domain.
          Anyone is free to devise his or her own set of unique
          commands and data structures that define an interchange
          format for final-form documents.  Adobe owns the copyright
          in the data structures, operators, and the written
          specification for the particular interchange format
          called the Portable Document Format. These elements
          may not be copied without Adobe's permission.

          Adobe will enforce its copyright. Adobe's intention
          is to maintain the integrity of the Portable Document
          Format as a standard. This enables the public to
          distinguish between the Portable Document Format and
          other interchange formats for final-form documents.

These appear on page 22 in the document titled "Portable Document Format Reference Manual Version 1.2" dated 11-27-1996 written by Tim Bienz, Richard Cohn, and James R. Meehan. It can be found at:

  http://partners.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/PDFS/TN/PDFSPEC.PDF

(It is a very large document - 1.5 MB.)

I think that Adobe is wrong on everything. A format is like a method which is not copyrightable. Also, it is not possible to separate the expression from ideas as found in the format.

Am I wrong?

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Thu Jan 28 1999 - 00:04:51 GMT