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I have written a letter to the technical support on the EU council page:
http://ceuweb.belbone.be/contact.php?lang=EN

I advise everyone with the same problem as me to do the same.

"Hi,

I have been trying to get your stream to play on my system. I must advise you that I'm an ICT professional and yes I know how to play a stream. The problem is, I am using linux. I have looked everywhere on your site to make your stream play. The link for media player 10 doesn't work. Offcourse it does display information, like that I should buy a microsoft windows license? Since the EU council is a public organisation and it's their duty to not discriminate people (taxpayers included) I reckon the EU is going to buy me a windows license so I can watch the stream? If not this is one hell of a technical problem.

I advise you to stop discriminating your inhabitants. The EU council does not have the right to force windows upon their inhabitants. If microsoft doesn't bring out a codec for open source systems (like linux or bsd) to play than the EU council will have to abandon microsoft as their supplier.

After all, it is our tax money.

Kind regards and hoping for a solution soon,

Sjaaksken"

The verbiage "We cannot support Linux" has been removed from the Council's FAQ web page. Ahhh, the power of Slashdot -- we may not get them to start streaming with an open source format, but at least we can get their FAQ modified. http://ceuweb.belbone.be/faq.php?lang=EN

According to netcraft, the web server of the streams uses Apache on linux :-)

http://ceuweb.belbone.be/ was running Apache on Linux when last queried at 31-Dec-2006 14:16:21 GMT -

Codeweavers sells a product which called CrossOver Linux which makes it possible to run Windows Media Player 6.4 under Linux. Codeweavers only gives Windows Media Player 6.4 a silver rating for how it runs under Linux. The European Union's Frequently Asked Questions page says that we need to use Microsoft Media Player version 6.4 or higher, so version 6.4 should be good enough. It doesn't even sound like they will let a Linux user try to use a possible solution like that. They are not correct in their assertion that there is no legal way for a Linux user to play the content.

My knowledge of law is limited, but my understanding is that the legality of some of this may not have been fully challenged or explored in the courts. It may also depend on which country the computer user happens to be in. No company has offered to sell any Linux software for viewing their proprietary codecs, so many Linux users find their only choice to be to downloaded use the possibly illegal codecs. In this case the Linux users are trying to view public documents, it is not like they are trying to steal copyrighted material. Why should the EU even care?

The EU's web page has public information that should be available to all voters. Because these are important public records, they should offer users a choice of formats. They should allow users to choose between using the closed-source proprietary Microsoft format and an open-standards format such as Ogg.

To whom it may concern:


I am interested in politics - especially on the European level, because political decisions heavily influence the way we, citizens of the EU states, live. As have learnt through Slashdot, a news website [1], the Council of the EU has decided to offer a streaming media service.

In my opinion, this is a very interesting service with great potential to provide citizens with more information to actual issues.

Unfortunately, the stream is only avaiable in a proprietary format named Windows Media Video (WMV). In your frequently asked questions [2] you state that "[the] live streaming media service [...] supports [only] Internet Explorer 5 and higher, Netscape Navigator 6 and higher.", that "[the stream] can be viewed [only] on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh platforms." and "[you] cannot support Linux in a legal way.".

As a user of free and open source software, this cought my attention. As a politically interested citizen, I would like to know why a proprietary (secret, probably patent-encumbered) format was chosen over an open video standard like Ogg Theora or XviD.

Proprietary formats, like WMV, are vendor-specific: They prevent or make it difficult for others to implement the specification. In this specific case, one has to download Windows Media Player, which is not avaiable for GNU/Linux, the operating system I am using. In constrast, open standards enable everyone to implement them: They are a vendor-agnostic, royalty-free and allow for a wide range of implementations. This can be compared to the analogue radio program, which can be heard with any radio, not just radios from microsoft.

As you can see, the use of a proprietary format is unfair, discriminatory behaviour against those who can not or do not want to use Microsoft Windows Media Player. The fact that this is done by a government entity makes it worse. In my opinion, gouvernment should not discriminate people - not even based on their choice of software. This is somehow a policital issue, but I doubt any reasonable citizen would oppose my position.

Most likely it is technically possible to offer the streaming media service in an open format to enable everyone with a capable computer and a good internet connection to watch it. You could do this, for example, with the free and open source software VLC Media Player [3], which is avaiable for a wide range of operating systems free of charge. Another way to provide wide access to your media stream could be the use of a java applet like Cortado (also free and open source software) which eliminates the need for a media player.


XXXX XXXX, a concerned citizen of the European Union


[1] http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=0& mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=214392
[2] http://ceuweb.belbone.be/faq.php?lang=EN
[3] http://videolan.org/
[4] http://www.flumotion.net/cortado/

The council of the European Union also doesn't support Firefox or Opera to there full extend. They say that them self right here, http://ceuweb.belbone.be/faq.php?lang=EN

And I quote.

"In what browsers can I view the live streaming media service of the Council of the European Union?
The live streaming media service of the Council of the European Union supports Internet Explorer 5 and higher, Netscape Navigator 6 and higher. If you encounter problems with a lower version of your browser, the browser should be updated to facilitate the live streaming media service. Firefox and Opera will be supported with a minimal of functionalities: No possibilities to use the Table Of contents for positioning the streaming. All the buttons for the player will disappear and the standard buttons of the player must be used to control the stream."

There stream is nothing more then mms that works with mplayer of properly configured at the servers end. This is a typical fuckup of a admin who doesn't actually know anything about computers and how to stream a video.