RTF - proprietary or open?

I'm using Abiword, which recommends using RTF for document exchange with non-Abi users. I'm trying to understand whether RTF is an open standard. Wikipedia [0] claims that it's proprietary. This article
[1] points out that it has the same status as PDF. I can't imagine
that Abi would recommend a non-open standard, and even prefer it to ODF (OASIS / XML) [2]. What does it even mean for a file format to be open? That the creator can't restrict its use? That the spec has been published?

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Text_Format
[1] http://www.tkachenko.com/blog/archives/000657.html
[2] http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/2003/Apr/0167.html

Celejar

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