It's *your* photo, Ralph...

From the sublime to the ridiculous. It's not bad enough that record labels are trying to lock up CDs so you can't media shift. Now it seems you may not even have unfettered access to your own digital photos.

It seems that Nikon's proprietary NEF image format (their own flavour of RAW) actually encrypts photo metadata. Their explanation for this approach seems couched in marketroid terms, mostly devoid of rational reasoning.

They say that this encryption approach "protects the uniqueness of the file". What on earth does that actually mean? For some reason they need to ensure the "preservation of [Nikon's] unique technology".

But wait a minute. I buy a camera. I take a photo. The photo is mine. The data is mine. The f-stop, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, whatever settings I used to take the photo - all mine. So why is Nikon so intent on locking away this information in a proprietary format?

The files can only be read using a proprietary SDK. You have to apply to Nikon to obtain it, and must be authorised to use it. Otherwise - you can't read your own photos in the NEF format. (Yes, you can use JPG but the quality is reduced.)

How is this good for the consumer in any conceivable way? Only authorised "bona fide" developers are able to obtain the SDK. But what is the license? Will I be able to develop Free/Open tools (like a Gimp plugin) with it? I doubt it. What platforms does the SDK run on? Will I be able to port it to my own preferred operating system?

It seems that Nikon are simultaneously restricting the consumer's choice about tools and platforms, while locking them in to using certain "blessed" proprietary software to read their own data.

It's your photo, Ralph.

Update: It looks like a clever developer has reverse engineered the NEF white balance encryption. But as the article mentions, there is the potential threat of the DMCA now (which is what put Adobe off trying this themselves). It will be interesting to see how Nikon reacts to this.