What are the risks involved in letting a vendor use a proprietary interface specification?
Despite assurances to the contrary, even well-intentioned vendors can saddle their customers with network interfaces and messaging formats that are so arcane, poorly documented, and inflexible that future upgrades and additions of additional equipment are impossible. In the worst case, vendors can assert proprietary rights of data over crucial elements of interfaces and communications message data that could make purchases from other vendors impossible and drive up the cost of equipment that must be acquired in a noncompetitive scenario.
