Before OpenRAW started their ActNow ! campaign, I requested to Canon, thru the Canon SDK e-mail address, the documentation for the RAW file format. The documentation was declined with some vague reason, and when I insisted for a clarification, because vague is not good enough, I got this:

One of the reasons we are #1 in our field is our strong portfolio of intellectual property. We devote a significant portion of our annual revenue to Research and Development, and as a result, Canon has been among the top 3 companies receiving US Patents for 13 consecutive years. The fruits of our R&D investments can be seen in many aspects of our products: We are one of the only camera manufacturers in the world who designs, develops and produces the 3 key components of our cameras, namely lenses, image sensors and image processors, as well as the software that runs them. We believe that our proprietary technologies clearly differentiate our products from those of our competitors.

In order to maintain our leadership position, we find it necessary to protect our intellectual property. Therefore, we have decided to maintain the confidential nature of the communication protocols of our digital cameras and the documentation of our RAW image data, among other things.

In our view, this has nothing to do with the ability of individuals to claim copyright to images produced by Canon cameras.

We certainly appreciate your business. However, our equipment and software is essentially offered on an "as is" basis, with no warranty as to its merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. If our equipment or software does not meet your needs, you are entirely welcome to seek other suppliers.

Best Regards,

Chuck Westfall Director/Media & Customer Relationship Camera Marketing Group/Canon U.S.A., Inc.

(kindly suppressed e-mail and phone)

The thing is that apparently HE denied his statement later claiming it as being a personnal opinion. But this is the answer I got thru official Canon channels (it was originating from the Canon SDK, not from hime self) and that it is signed by a director, I consider it said as an official statement from Canon USA.

It is insteresting to see that now, if you ask this to the tech support (Canon Canada in my case) you get the really moderated answer:

Dear Hubert Figuiere

It is only through our customers comments and suggestions that we are able to manufacture quality products that our customers will be able to use on a consistent basis. The fact that you took the time to write to us is indeed appreciated. Please be assured that your comments have been forwarded onto the appropriate department for their information and review. Sincerely,

Which at least acknowledge that they started to recieve a lot of request from people, requiring to provide a pre-fabricated message to the support staff.

It is still time to ActNow ! if you haven't.