Re:This is now illegal (Score 5, Informative)

It is not "illegal" in any country. You are thinking about the End User License Agreement for MSDN Library, which potentially makes it a license violation (which isn't the same as a violation of public statutes or criminal code). I will quote: "you may use documentation identified in the Library as the file format specification for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and/or Microsoft PowerPoint ('File Format Documentation') solely in conjunction with your development of software product(s) that operate in conjunction with Windows, Windows NT, or Windows 2000 that are not general-purpose word-processing, spreadsheet, database management, or presentation graphics software products or an integrated work or product suite whose components include one or more general-purpose word-processing, spreadsheet, or database management software products. Note: A product that includes limited word-processing, spreadsheet, database, or presentation graphics components along with other components that provide significant and primary value, such as an accounting product with limited spreadsheet capability, is not considered to be a 'general-purpose' product. For licensing terms relating to use of the File Format Documentation for purposes other than the use described above, please contact Microsoft Corporation."

I will point out several things:

• The EULA covers use of Microsoft's documentation. If you don't use Microsoft's documentation to implement your file format compatibility, the EULA doesn't apply to you.
• Although this provision remains in the current EULA for MSDN Library, Microsoft stopped including the Office file format specifications in MSDN Library years ago, so it's somewhat difficult to violate this provision today.
• Most of the Office applications are moving gradually to using XML-based formats. Although Microsoft has implemented proprietary schemas and styles, all of it is still readily visible as plain text and fundamentally easier to inspect and reverse-engineer. The absence of documentation will only grow less and less important as XML takes over.