" The bragging rights of owning a JSON string depend heavily on whether or not the proprietary entity will become the dominant player in the I own a JSON string-world." -> as the parent post explains, this particular aspect is exactly like baseball cards; where technically anyone could print other Barry Bonds cards but your bragging rights of owning a rare baseball card depend heavily on whether or not the proprietary entity printing those particular cards will be the dominant player in the baseball card world.