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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 88 declined, 21 accepted (109 total, 19.27% accepted)

Submission + - European policymakers discuss digital independence (youtube.com)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: As the new term of the European Commission begins, policymakers from various political groups (Agenda, Stream) convened yesterday in the European Parliament to discuss strategies for ensuring Europe's Digital Independence and addressing the challenges of technology lock-in. A key takeaway from the discussions was that relying solely on open-source contributors for the Eurostack is not enough—there's a pressing need for substantial public investment.

Submission + - EU asks the public about data privacy framework with the US

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: The European Commission asks for public input on their data privacy framework with the US. A French contributor spilled the milk:

The DPF doesn't protect any of us in the EU from NSA spying and Fisa 702 & Cloud Act legal requests from US Justice

.The agreements prior to the EU-US DPF were invalidated by the European Court for these reasons.

Wine

Submission + - Wine project frustration and forking (winehq.org)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "Wine attempts to implement the Windows API layer on Linux. There are some limitations and an important one is the missing DIB engine, bug 421. Chris Howe comprehends the dissatisfaction of core developers with the abitrary project governance:

Sorry to sound like a stuck record but the Wine website still lists "write a DIB engine" as a requirement, and every time someone does, the patches dissapear down a hole because they're "not right". Someone document what "would be right", or take "write a DIB engine" off the list. I'd love to have a go at documenting it myself, but I don't have the time to reverse engineer it from a few years' worth of rejected solutions.

The latest attempt of Massimo Del Fedel satisfied all requirements set previously for the long standing bug 421 and his optional engine seems to work fine by all Wine quality standards. He seems to be extraordinary stubborn and insusceptible to mobbing. Usually it is extremely frustrating for developers when the goal post is constantly moved. When is the right time that project members should fork when their chief maintainer does not respond anymore or pursues an adverse commercial agenda?"

Government

Submission + - Secret EU Open Source migration study surfaced (stefanoforenza.com)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "For 4 years MEP Marco Cappato tried to get access to the EU Council open source migration study because he is a member of a responsible IT oversight committee in the European Parliament. His repeated requests for access where finally answered by the Council with the alleged loss of the study. Now, the study finally was gathered and published on the internet. It is embarrassing! Upon request the Gartner Michael Silver claimed there were no mature public Linux installations in Europe "I have not spoken to any sizable deployments of Linux on the desktop and only one or two StarOffice deployments", gartner spread patent and TCO fud. Also the European Patent Office participated in the project although it is no EU institution."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - No Russian Operating System (cnews.ru) 1

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "The project by 27 Russian parties to develop a National Operating System for Russia does not take off, yet. Ilya Ponomarev, the responsible technology committee chair in the Duma, received a negative response from the government. The government argues that the project and Open Standards would not impact the society and economy. Parliament members regret the slashback for Russia's digital independence. Ponomarev wants to find other interested partners in the Government now."
Patents

Submission + - European Open Source Software Strategy leaked (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "A working draft of the European Union Open Source Software Strategy was published by Wikileaks. According to Wikileaks meta information it was co-authored by Jonathan Zuck from the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a lobby hitman for Microsoft; The European Commission lets ACT and CompTIA participate in all working groups of the European Open Source Strategy which defines Europe's future open source approach. A blue editor questions the objectives: 'Regarding the "Europe Digital Independence" our [working] group thinks it is, in general, not an issue.' "European digital independence" is a phrase coined by EU-Commissioner V.Reding, that is what her European Software Strategy (ESS) was supposed to be about. She didn't reveal that lobbyists or vendors with vested interests would write the strategy for the Commission. The leaked document's language on patent licensing sounds a bit odd and controversial to me given the recent frontal patent assaults on the European automative business by Microsoft."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Russia develops National Operating System

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "According to Russian media the Government is going to develop a National Operating System to lower its dependencies on foreign software technology licensing. The Russian plan will base its efforts on Linux and expects a worldwide impact. Microsoft is also involved in the round table process that led to the recommendation. The Chinese government successfully lowered its Microsoft licensing costs through an early investment in a national Linux distribution. I wonder if other large markets as the European Union will also develop their own Linux distributions or join the Russian initiative."
Microsoft

Submission + - EU hides Microsoft contracts

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "Marco Cappato, a Liberal member of the European Parliament wanted to inspect the EU contracts with Microsoft. His request was denied

because ...the divulgation of those information could jeopardize the protection of commercial interest of Microsoft. Acknowledging that the divulgations of the records are not backed by a clear public interest, the Secretariat general concludes that the protection of Microsoft's commercial interests, being one of the commercial partners of the European institutions, prevails on the divulgation for the public interest

"
Privacy

Submission + - EU admits ACTA is about internet content control

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "An EU document on the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty(ACTA) was leaked. The main purpose of the trade agreement is to impose the European enforcement measures for IPR infringements on the United States and emerging economies, widen the enforcement measures to include criminal sanctions for patent infringements and introduce internet content filtering measures. Civil Society groups criticise the ACTA process because negotiation documents are not made publicly available by the governments. The EU document ('fact sheet') from EU Trade-Commissioner Ashton explicitly mentions:

Internet distribution and information technology — e.g. mechanisms available in EU E-commerce Directive of 2000, such as a definition of the responsibility of internet service providers regarding IP infringing content.

"
Red Hat Software

Submission + - Microsoft: Open Document won standard war

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "At a RedHat retrospective panel on the ODF vs. OOXML struggle panel a Microsoft representative, Stuart McKee, admitted that ODF had "clearly won". The Redmond company is going to add native support of ODF 1.1 with its Office 2007 service pack 2. Its yet unpublished format ISO OOXML would not be supported before the release of the next Office generation and is under the looming risk of four national appeals to the ISO decision."
Social Networks

Submission + - Amazon Gift ordering patent revoked

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "The Amazon gift ordering patent was revoked today by the European Patent Office. A 100% victory. In a press release they write: "The so-called "Gift Order Patent" has been revoked by the EPO in an opposition proceeding today after a hearing involving three opposing parties and the patent proprietor, Amazon Inc. The patent relates to a method for purchasing goods over the Internet to be sent as gifts." Santa did not have lodge opposition against the patent. The opponents were Fleurop, the FFII and the German computer science society. What strikes me is that so many parties benefit that infringed upon the patent but you just need very few organisations that file an opposition. Why are not more patents opposed?"
Mozilla

Submission + - Thunderbird in crisis?

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "The two core developers of Thunderbird leave Mozilla. Scott McGregor made a brief statement: "I wanted to let the Thunderbird community know that Friday October 12th will be my last day as an employee of the Mozilla Corporation." and David blogged "Just wanted to let everyone know that my last day at The Mozilla Corporation will be Oct. 12. I intend to stay involved with Thunderbird... I've enjoyed working at Mozilla a lot, and I wish Mozilla Co and the new Mail Co all the best." I am scared. A few month ago Mozilla management considered to abandon their second product and set up a special corporation just for the mail client. Scott was more or less supportive. David joined in. While Sunbird just released a new version no appropriate resources were dedicated to the missing component. And while Thunderbird became the most used Linux mail client it is abandoned by Mozilla for 'popularity reasons'. Both messages from David and Scott do not sound if they as founders will play any role in the Thunderbird Mail Corporation. What happened to Mozilla? Is it a case of pauperization through donations?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Rodriguez slaughters Open XML

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "Stephane Rodriguez, a reengineering specialist who became popular for his article on MS-Office 2007 binary data, slaughters Microsoft's new Open XML format. With small case studies he demonstrates the disadvantages for third party developers. His conclusion: It is 'defective by design'. Next week members of the International Standard Organisation are likely to approve the format as a second official ISO standard for office documents. However, most nations submitted comments. Rodriguez claims to be "not affiliated to any pro-MS or anti-MS party/org/ass"."
The Matrix

Submission + - IPRED2 - Open Rights Group vs. Their Rights Online

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "The British Open Rights Groups yells the alarm bell. Europe again. Ipred v.2, a directive proposal, will pass the Legal Affairs Committee soon. ipred2 would brand 'all intentional intellectual property rights infringements on a commercial scale' a criminal offence, thus the public prosecutor will take action and take over the role of RIAA. For commercial social communities where infringements are inevitable — think of Youtube — they expect dangerous times ahead. On the other hand life of content industrials would get a lot easier. It is difficult to imagine how the consumer would benefit. Toine Manders, Dutch MEP in that Committee, openly advocates his amendment proposal aimed to criminalize consumers. Open Rights Group suggests you to write to your Members of Parliament. Will they have any impact? Janelly Fourtou, wife of the Vivendi boss, is a member of the Committee. And she pushed through ipred number 1, so why should public action make a difference? The EFF started only this month to build up an office in Brussels. Do MEPs listen or could Sealand be an option for Web 2.1?"

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