OpenRAW

Without open, extensible, non-proprietary and free file format, all of our images of today will become inaccesible artifacts given enough time.

My wife made several art pieces in the late 80's using a graphics tablet and long-defunct PixelPaint. Today, 17 years later, it is becoming very difficult to physically access the 3.5" disks that contain her original artwork, and there is but one software application that still recognizes (with optional plugins) the original file format.

At least with these PixelPaint files, I can convert them to a contemporary file format. If these were today's encrypted RAW files, I no longer would have that option and I would have either completely lost the art, or at least some of the related information, such as white balance.

This is completely unacceptable, and we as artists and users must force the manufacturers to realize the huge disservice done to the future users of our work that their hostile approach is causing.