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I'm not really sure where you're coming from on this. The UK is part of the EU, according to http://europa.eu.int/abc/governments/index_en.htm. Is this something that most English people don't know? That would be a lot like the United States not knowing that we were part of North America.

OK, bad example.

Micros~1 knows very well windows can't really compete against solaris, aix and all the unix vendors when it comes to quality

Micros~1 wanted to take the server market, but they don't like competing. What server do? Give services to clients. Who are clients? Desktops. Who ows 95% of the desktop market share? Microsoft. So just integrate windows server and clients so tighly, that people will choose windows as server. Not because windows is a better server OS, but because it allows good integration with clients, which is what servers are about. (Unix fragmentation didn't help to fight Micros~1 either). Unix dominates in the field where there're open protocols and there's a lack of licenses, patents, and shit: HTTP, FTP, email, etc. In other words: where companies can compete freely. But when it comes to integrating windows clients, nothing can do it better than a windows server.

This wouldn't be a problem if Microsoft weren't using propietary and closed technologies to forbid other companies from competing. It's not a coincidence that the European Commison asked micros~1 "to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers. This will enable rival vendors to develop products that can compete on a level playing field in the work group server operating system market. The disclosed information will have to be updated each time Microsoft brings to the market new versions of its relevant products" and fining Micros~1. It's not a coincidence that IBM, red hat, sun, nokia and real are complaining to the European commission either.

This is in europe, in eeuu people tried this and failed. It's somewhat ironic that the country which is supposed to love capitalism is quickly becoming a place where companies can't compete and users are told waht and how they must see ej: a film (DRM). Communists have not gone away, but it's not russia where they're this time....

In the UK, we are suspicious of:

(1) The cost - that this is going to be a cash cow for the biometrics companies. The majority (if not all) of all UK government IT contracts, have costs that end up spiralling out of control, and have hefty cancellation fees. There is a fear that the government will charge an administration fee every time your address changes, and fine anyone who fails to update their address. Consider students, homeless people and contract workers who change address regularly.

(2) The invasion of privacy - governments departments such as the DVLA are already in trouble for selling personal information (names and addresses) to questionable private car clamping firms (with owners who have criminal records) who have sent threatening letters to car owners.

(3) The arguments for the need for ID cards have included: the ability to fight terrorism (although the home secretary admits it would not have stopped the London bombings), and the ability to fight social security fraud (although certain members of the public will be allowed to have two ID cards). If fraudsters are able to forge utility bills, passports, bank cards, what is going to stop them from faking ID cards?

(4) A good percentage of the population believe that the UK government has lost control of illegal immigration and is spending money on ID cards because they can't control the borders. And they can't target non-Christian religions, because that would be racist.

(5) Function creep - that the ID cards will be used for more basic services, such as booking flight, national train journeys and maybe even shopping purchases.

In any case, it would seem that France is also getting French ID cards

well, according to this european union survey on foreign language proficiency, there are important differences between european coutries, not that it suprises me so much (Im French). Too bad they dont give stats on leet skills as well:)

Obviously, the drafters of the EU constitution wanted to avoid the "errors" of their US peers, which "inadvertedly" gave too much liberties to the populace, and not enough to honest businessmen...

here you go, it's long but pretty clear Decision

Some highlights, in case you actually want the information:

"Microsoft Corporation shall, within 120 days of the date of notification of this Decision, make the Interoperability Information available to any undertaking having an interest in developing and distributing work group server operating system products and shall, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, allow the use of the Interoperability Information by such undertakings for the purpose of developing and distributing work group server operating system products"

"the Interoperability Information" means "the complete and accurate specifications for all the Protocols implemented in Windows Work Group Server Operating Systems and that are used by Windows Work Group Servers to deliver file and print services and group and user administration services, including the Windows Domain Controller services, Active Directory services and Group Policy services, to Windows Work Group Networks"

Man, that was EASY! It's almost like the Comission wanted me and everyone else to know what their requirements were!

There are various examples that show without a shred of doubt that there is no intelligent design around here.

Absolutely. There is a general unwillingness to deal with privacy as a major issue here. I would claim that privacy is a basic right that citizens should demand, and it should be legislated into government. There is a privacy commissioner in Canada and associated legislation that can be enforced; similar governmental structures exist in Europe. For all of the free-market talk and general wish for lack of interference in personal life, wouldn't it make sense for American government to serve the people in a manner that everyone can agree with, by creating safeguards and services that protect our privacy?

This EU press release gives the impression that if the documentation is inaccurate Microsoft must correct it, and if it is incomplete Microsoft must write some more.

Microsoft has prepared several versions of the Technical Documentation since the 2004 Decision, and none has complied with the requirements of that Decision. The Commission understands that Microsoft has recently prepared revised documentation addressing only points relating to formatting (e.g. typos, missing hyperlinks), but not the general concerns about completeness and accuracy. That is the reason why it continues to be the Commission's conclusion that Microsoft is not in compliance with its obligations, i.e. that the technical documentation is not complete and accurate.

how are they abusing a monopoly that was generated by the successful marketting of their product?

There's nothing out there that says interoperability with Windows is a requirement. If their product is so great, it should be able to shine on it's own.

* As regards interoperability, Microsoft is required, within 120 days, to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers. This will enable rival vendors to develop products that can compete on a level playing field in the work group server operating system market. The disclosed information will have to be updated each time Microsoft brings to the market new versions of its relevant products.
To the extent that any of this interface information might be protected by intellectual property in the European Economic Area(6), Microsoft would be entitled to reasonable remuneration. The disclosure order concerns the interface documentation only, and not the Windows source code, as this is not necessary to achieve the development of interoperable products.

This is going to be one for http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/kroes /index_en.html the European Competition commissioner. Following in the footsteps of Super Mario, it looks like this one could run and run.

Fellow Europeans, you can fill in this form. It's short and you can email the answer to the email adress contained within. This form is meant to understand what the European people thinks about the issue, so take the chance!

Oh, and this was filed in the U.S. but approved by a European patent office so I don't think it's fair for this judge to bash only us Yanks.

Unfortunately the EPO and its Board of Appeal have been making up their own rules and approving patents on IP which should not be patentable according to the law establishing the EPO. Last night (EST) Groklaw carried this story about the European Parliament's recent rejection of the Computer-Implemented Inventions Directive. The essay has many quotes from a British judge criticising the EPO for exceeding its brief, and from software industry sources as little as 12 years ago observing that software patents would be counter-productive. Open source advocate lobbying had little to do with the CII directive being thrown out. It was Microsoft and friends' sudden fright when they realised the European parliament was serious about enforcing the existing law as distinct from the existing practice of the EPO. Note that the bureaucrats of the European Commission were the ones who were lobbied by industry, and the ones who lost to the democratically elected members of parliament.

Just to show its fairness the Commission is now revisiting the whole field of industrial patents, including the possibility of software patents.

No. Judges aren't The Borg. One judge's opinion (and that's little-o opinion, not an opinion handed down) is hardly a watershed event

But this Judge's opinion is quite representative of the concerns of many in Europe. Remember that the EU software patent directive was rejected by a margin of over 600 votes.

If the concerns of people such as Sir Robin Jacob are well publicised, this can only help educate the public at large and inform the MEPs who vote on such matters.

According to a newspaper I read (its swedish, sorry folks) http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=513 113&previousRenderType=2 the systems can work together. They pretty much said that twice the satelites means better coverage.

Another clip here: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/international/cooperation_en.htm
"This includes, quite naturally, co-operation with the two countries now operating satellite navigation systems. Europe is already examining a number of technical issues with the United States related to interoperability and compatibility with the GPS system. The objective is to ensure that everyone will be able to use both GPS and GALILEO signals with a single receiver. Negotiations on co-operation scenarios with the Russian Federation, which has valuable experience in the development and operation of its GLONASS system, are also ongoing."

Also, from http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/international/global_en.htm :
"Once again, the GALILEO system will be fully compatible with the existing American GPS system. The objective being pursued by Europe is to reinforce the satellite navigation infrastructure by providing an additional, state-of-the-art system ensuring a more robust, precise and continuous service to users worldwide."

So basicly, they will not compete, more like complement each other.

According to a newspaper I read (its swedish, sorry folks) http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=513 113&previousRenderType=2 the systems can work together. They pretty much said that twice the satelites means better coverage.

Another clip here: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/international/cooperation_en.htm
"This includes, quite naturally, co-operation with the two countries now operating satellite navigation systems. Europe is already examining a number of technical issues with the United States related to interoperability and compatibility with the GPS system. The objective is to ensure that everyone will be able to use both GPS and GALILEO signals with a single receiver. Negotiations on co-operation scenarios with the Russian Federation, which has valuable experience in the development and operation of its GLONASS system, are also ongoing."

Also, from http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/international/global_en.htm :
"Once again, the GALILEO system will be fully compatible with the existing American GPS system. The objective being pursued by Europe is to reinforce the satellite navigation infrastructure by providing an additional, state-of-the-art system ensuring a more robust, precise and continuous service to users worldwide."

So basicly, they will not compete, more like complement each other.

Welcome to the EUCD: it's illegal to circumvent copyprotection mechanisms.

Current DVDs with regioncodes and CSS might be exempt since they were no longer effective before ratification of the EUCD.

You might want to read (and your local implementation of it)
http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi !celexplus!prod!CELEXnumdoc&numdoc=32001L0029&lg=E N

CHAPTER III

PROTECTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES AND RIGHTS-MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

Article 6

Obligations as to technological measures

2. Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the manufacture, import, distribution, sale, rental, advertisement for sale or rental, or possession for commercial purposes of devices, products or components or the provision of services which:

(a) are promoted, advertised or marketed for the purpose of circumvention of, or

(b) have only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent, or

(c) are primarily designed, produced, adapted or performed for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of,

any effective technological measures.

3. For the purposes of this Directive, the expression "technological measures" means any technology, device or component that, in the normal course of its operation, is designed to prevent or restrict acts, in respect of works or other subject-matter, which are not authorised by the rightholder of any copyright or any right related to copyright as provided for by law or the sui generis right provided for in Chapter III of Directive 96/9/EC. Technological measures shall be deemed "effective" where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process, such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective.

This is a hacked up version of the article I submitted up there. I put in some important links that were chopped off on the editorial above by mistake it seems.

See these links for more information:
1. EU Space Agency Galileo Project
2. Galileo Nav WIKI Page

take a look at this link http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/intro/viability_en.htm It states tha Galileo costs the same as 150km highway. That's really not expensive!

This can only be for the good. To have two systems, which will eventually work interoperably, will actually strengthen both systems. Not only that - but they are operated by two different authorities, one military and one civil. With the US system starting to fall apart, something like this is a lifesaver. And to think that it will piss off the hawks... well, we'll call it a bonus.

GPS users must plan for outages
A very thorough discussion of Europe's thinking on this (PDF alert)

So. Forgetting the bundling of Windows Media Player for now, what 'abuses' does the EU charge MS with? Basically it boils down to having refused to give Sun enough information to re-create an Active Directory Domain Controller (as well as file/print services completely interoperable with, and basically indistiguishable from, those MS offers) on their own.

The basic theory of the decision, then, is that by refusing Sun the ability to clone MS's AD/file/print services, MS was blocking Sun from the market for a centralized directory of accounts and file/print services.

The decision states that "it was necessary to show that supply [of MS's interface specs in this case] is indispensable to carry on business in the market, which means that there is no realistic actual or potential substitute to it." (paragraph 585, pg 158) I don't have much difficulty thinking of actual or potential substitutes to MS's AD/file/print services - do you?

Heck, two paragraphs later, the EU decision notes that UNIX & Novell entered the workgroup server market before MS did! Following this paragraph, the EU then summarizes a lot of market research which essentially states that "actual and potential substitutes" to MS's AD & file/print services do exist ... they just do not have much market traction at present. But they could gain that traction, if they played their cards right. As shown by the way MS managed to edge Novell out of its dominant NOS position a few years back.

Personally, I wish MS would just go ahead and publish all the info Sun originally asked for (Sun's original request is what metastized into the the EU proceedings), and a whole lot more besides. Where we differ is that I don't think anyone has the right to force MS to give up this data, and especially not for the mere purpose of allowing MS's competitors a free ride on the technology MS spent years of hard work developing.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do? reference=IP/04/382&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN &guiLanguage=en

The EU doesn't really make laws, but directives, which focus on objectives, forcing member states to implement them, generally with laws. The member states usually have some freedom in the implementation.

For example, for the EU Copyrirght Directive (EUCD), there're the list of all possible "faire use" exceptions, and this is even linked with anti-circumvention articles. At the end, the states are free to take an agressive, DMCA-like legislation, where it is illegal to "break" DRM to make a private copy, while other could choose to allow circumvention of DRM and creation of MP3 for private use (see article 5.2.b and 6.4).

So, it depends, and in this case, you should ask a slovenian ;)

Slovenia is a member of the EU, so whatever EU law says about these P2P issues is probably relevant as well.

Any of our Euro-dotters care to comment?

I have a feeling this is not a fully-harmonized area, EU-law-wise, since the good folks at the Pirate Bay continue to entertain us with their responses to legal threats.

"It can cause, like it did in me, a red flush over the upper half of the body and the face, and severe oil production by the Sebaceous glands, and a continual headach. It is associated with memory loss. My once nearly photographic memory is now gone."

abdominal pain, anxiety attacks, arthritis, asthma, asthmatic reactions, bloating/edema, blood sugar control problems (hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia), brain cancer (Pre-approval studies in animals), breathing difficulties, burning eyes or throat, burning urination, can't think straight, chest pains, chronic cough, chronic fatigue, confusion, death, depression, diarrhea, dizziness, excessive thirst or hunger, fatigue, feel 'unreal', flushing of face, hair loss (baldness) or thinning of hair, headaches/migraines, hearing loss, heart palpitations, hives (Urticaria), hypertension (high blood pressure), impotency and sexual problems, inability to concentrate, infection susceptibility, insomnia, irritability, itching, joint pains, laryngitis, "like thinking in a fog," marked personality changes, memory loss, menstrual problems or changes, muscle spasms, nausea or vomiting, numbness or tingling of extremities, other allergic-like reactions, panic attacks, phobias, poor memory, rapid heartbeat, rashes, seizures and convulsions, slurring of speech, swallowing pain, tachycardia, tremors, tinnitus, vertigo, vision loss, and weight gain

Ah well. Probably it's a reference to the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Being a nerd site, it's strange that nobody figured that out earlier.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/legislation/ treaties/ec/art81_en.html

Actually, all public documents from the Community institutions (documents available for the public), are in pdf / html.
- see judgements and legislation

I don't see how it matters for the public, if these documents are created with MSO applications, as long as they can be opened with any browser / pdf-viewer.

OTOH, internal documents, and documents sent to i.e. the government institutions of the Member States, are often sent as .doc, and I agree that this is something that MS propably would like to hold on to.

Definitely, if there is no need for the outsiders to edit your documents, send them allways as PDF. However, internally you should use Open Document Format, not the old .sx* formats. You can even distribute your open documents. Open Office is not the only office suite to support them. If you do work for the EU and need them to edit your documents, use open document format, the recommendation by the EU.

http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3439
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3428/5644
http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

Definitely, if there is no need for the outsiders to edit your documents, send them allways as PDF. However, internally you should use Open Document Format, not the old .sx* formats. You can even distribute your open documents. Open Office is not the only office suite to support them. If you do work for the EU and need them to edit your documents, use open document format, the recommendation by the EU.

http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3439
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/3428/5644
http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

At least in Europe, even reverse engineering is forbidden by copyright law, except for the purpose of making software interoperable with another product.

Of course the computer programs Directive (91/250/EEC) states reverse engineering for the purpose of making software interoperable as being explicitly allowed.

But I know of no EU laws (or case law) forbidding reverse engineering of software, and I ought to know.

In 2002, when the EU commission proposed the software patent directive, they wrote: "The proposal therefore reflects concerns that if 'isolated' computer programs could be patented, this would blur the distinction between the scope of copyright and patent protection, and that if enforced, patents including such claims could be used to prevent "reverse engineering" and other activities considered legitimate in respect of computer programs already protected under copyright law.".

If you know of any EU law (or case law) that forbids reverse engineering of software in Europe, please let me know.

I have a friend who owns a Prius, yes he has the most expensive model around $28,000.00 US, but it gets about 45mpg average and he can use the HOV lanes which also saves time and gas.
In today's preplanned communities, where you are running around in suburbia in stop & go traffic, he says it does save time and money. The GPS system also saves time and money by not having to get lost or stop and ask directions.
On a side note, he said there was no wait to purchase this vehicle...he simply walked in the dealership and bought the only one they had. Toyota no longer measures their Prius inventories in monthly allotments, it is in such high demand that they do it by the day!

Now on to Hydrogen-powered vehicles, I will buy one of these....Toyota, are you listening?
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/energy/nn/nn_rt /nn_rt_hy/images/hy1_bmw_1348.jpg

Windmills are not really "Man's best hope for energy". When is there the most wind? Spring and fall. When are energy needs the highest? Summer and winter. Besides this they are not very powerfull (large number needed to power a city), kill loads of migrating birds (strange/macabre but true), and the weather is not exactly something stable enough to build your energy grid on. Oh yeah: it can be cloudy and windless.

I see much more potential in wave-energy; which probably hasn't taken off yet because one practice experiment in Norway got 'blown off' after a violent storm wrecked it, and because it isn't in the public eye much.

As the voting form requires to vote for all categories it is not a good thing to do this if you have no clue who all these people are. Even I, as a overaddict news consuming European, have no clue what to choose for most of the categories because here in Europe news sources are mostly nation minded and therefore very fragmented.

Oh please, give me a break. There are a huge number of fantastic EU focused news-sites that have excellent coverage on all matters pertaining to the Union. Not to mention the EU's own news pages.

http://euobserver.com/
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/
http://www.european-voice.com/
http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu.int/news/index_en.htm
http://www.eubusiness.com/
http://www.eubusiness.com/

And of course most news sites (such as BBC news) have an EU portal. And of course you can use google news with a custom filter for 'European Union' to get your daily fix.

As the voting form requires to vote for all categories it is not a good thing to do this if you have no clue who all these people are. Even I, as a overaddict news consuming European, have no clue what to choose for most of the categories because here in Europe news sources are mostly nation minded and therefore very fragmented.

Oh please, give me a break. There are a huge number of fantastic EU focused news-sites that have excellent coverage on all matters pertaining to the Union. Not to mention the EU's own news pages.

http://euobserver.com/
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/
http://www.european-voice.com/
http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu.int/news/index_en.htm
http://www.eubusiness.com/
http://www.eubusiness.com/

And of course most news sites (such as BBC news) have an EU portal. And of course you can use google news with a custom filter for 'European Union' to get your daily fix.

As the voting form requires to vote for all categories it is not a good thing to do this if you have no clue who all these people are. Even I, as a overaddict news consuming European, have no clue what to choose for most of the categories because here in Europe news sources are mostly nation minded and therefore very fragmented.

Oh please, give me a break. There are a huge number of fantastic EU focused news-sites that have excellent coverage on all matters pertaining to the Union. Not to mention the EU's own news pages.

http://euobserver.com/
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/
http://www.european-voice.com/
http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu.int/news/index_en.htm
http://www.eubusiness.com/
http://www.eubusiness.com/

And of course most news sites (such as BBC news) have an EU portal. And of course you can use google news with a custom filter for 'European Union' to get your daily fix.

Once the Chinese market has matured, investors will think of American and the EU as they today think of Luxembourg and Jamaica.

where the identification and authentication framework is mandated by law but anyone is free to provide a conformant infrastructure. To use the so-called "Bürgerkarte" (or citizen card) you can actually use anything from a bank card with on-board chip, an eHealth card or even your mobile phone (where you authenticate via your supplier who sends a single-transaction pin as a challenge-response mechanism) and you can use any of the mechanisms for any of a range of services, including, soon, onlne banking. As all implementations all use the same authentication mechanism, you will be able to use your phone to authenticate for eHealth services, and even your card from one bank to authenticate with your account in another...and you can have as many "instances" of the "card" as you want, provided by a range of public and private sector suppliers. Many handware summpliers are getting in on the act and supplying card-readers as standard with new PCs, for those who want...What's more, as there is no personal data on-card and a hashing mechanism before any id token is passed to a eService supplier there is also the strongest personal data protection possible: no one service can scrape any personal data from a transaction http://www.cio.gv.at/identity/ and http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/885/331

Norway is a member of the EEA and has to implement all EU directives.

"I ANY country citizenship is not given BEFORE you have learned the LANGUAGE of that country. [...] Well, guess what, there you need to speak native language too :)"

Not correct. You don't actually need to know the Swedish language to become a citizen of the country. In fact, in many -- if not most -- countries babies born there will automatically gain full citizenship regardless of parent's nationalities or language. Even though the children themselves cannot speak any language at all by the time.

This document http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/dwn/opinions /estonia/es-op-en.pdf was drafted by the EU before Estonia was accepted as a EU member. It does express some concerns for the Russian minority and other issues, with fairly good explanations. Here is an excerpt (basically about a human rights issue):

The Estonian authorities should consider means to enable stateless children born in Estonia to be naturalised more easily, particularly with a view to the impending entry into effect of the European Convention on nationality agreed within the Council of Europe.

Estonian citizenship seems to be a highly controversial issue which provokes heated debates -- which is quite understandable, given the country's history. The grandparent made many thoughtless and highly questionable remarks. In spite of that, I believe he does have a point. The issue here, as I see it, is that a substantial part of the Russian population living in Estonia have been born and raised in the country, although they only speak Russian. Many of them are old and quite unable to master a second language. Some people (among them EU officials) believe that this in itself is reason enough to receive a citizenship.

That's all well and good, except that Norway isn't part of the EU, and thus is not under any obligations whatsoever to comply with any "EU directives".

Just so you know. Not all of Europe is in the EU. Here's a link: European Member States.

No, of course, you don't see it. That's because Britain is just that little bit different from the rest of Europe. Are you really a part of Europe? You have a much more [non-European] multi-cultural society than most. Do you remember that total flop you sent to the Eurovision competition - Europe hated it, Britain loved it. For other reasons I believe that De Gaulle was right, the UK should never have become a member. You have far more in common with the US - culturally and politically. Perhaps you agree with me?

It's not Islam that's the problem - because I believe the largely Muslim Bosnia and Herzegovina should become a member. However that's a clear cut case of a European nation, clearly within the borders of what I consider Europe. Do you know why Bosnia is a Muslim nation? Turkey invaded that part of Europe - colonized and forced the population to convert. Of course that's not an argument against Turkey today - it's just an explanation why a Muslim nation is not incompatible with a European identity. Turkey has never had any European identity at all. I respect Islam and Muslims - however it's not a concern or part of the European Union project. That's what our Neighbourhood project is for.

The General Food Law mandates tracking and tracing of all food produced in the EU.

And as far as I know the Dutch are leading within Europe.

Here is a better link and a Google news search.

I believe the actual article that this is supposed to be pointing at it here.

I know a number of EU people and over the last 12 months actually spent more time in Brussels (the de-facto capital of the EU) than Munich (a town that's just about 10 miles from where I live). There are also some who I've written letters to without actually getting a meeting.

It's not like everyone there is stupid. The EU Commission, which is like the executive government of the EU (but also the "project manager" for lawmaking), consists of many different directorates-general (DGs). Some DGs do a better job than others.

The EC's anti-trust decision against MSFT is a fairly stupid one. The actual decision starts on page 298, and the Media Player thing is in Article 6:

Microsoft Corporation shall, within 90 days of the date of notification of this Decision, offer a full-functioning version of the Windows Client PC Operating System which does not incorporate Windows Media Player; Microsoft Corporation retains the right to offer a bundle of the Windows Client PC Operating System and Windows Media Player;

The latter part with "retains the right to offer a bundle..." makes the whole thing completely pointless. I guess they had to still allow Microsoft to offer that kind of bundle because the overall case was weak. It's really not a major problem to any of us if Windows comes with a Media Player. Patents on multimedia formats are a much bigger problem, and that's what the very same EU Commission supports (they lied to the entire European public in their attempts to get software patents legalized here).

GPS is another military technology that the US military was nice enough to share with civilians. Should they vote themselves the power to take that over too?

We don't need to -- we're well aware of the risks of depending on the US continuing to make the servive available, which is why we're building our own GPS network

In France (not sure its the best reference to use in the US :-)
The Gendarmerie National (Militarized Police Forces) uses Open Office on all new stations and is in the process of upgrading all the old PCs. (its 70 000 PCs)
The Customs Office is using OO on 16000 office.

City of Vienna, and Munich are in that process also.

The Junta de Extremadura in Spain (regional government) is using Linux/OO for everything (the Education dep only has 80 000 workstations).

You migth want to check out: http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/chapter/452 (the IDABC Open Source Observatory)
And http://adullact.org/breve.php3?id_breve=361 is a link in French about Massachusetts's migration to Open Formats.

Finally remember that there are three categories of CSS (Closed Source Software) supporting Public Servants:
- Some are Corrupt
- Many are incompetent
- Some are Both.

(unfortunatelly to be truthfull, FOSS supporting Public Servants are not necesarelly Angels, it would be too simple otherwise)

So you have to find out in wich category your decision makers are :-)

Good Luck

It would be ironic if it was found that the intensity of these hurricanes has been made worse by the lack of US participation in the Kyoto Policy, or their lack of any serious environmental policy.

I admit that The Day After Tommorow is possibly a bit of an extreme case, but there was a message the film makers were trying to send.

While I may land up with bad karma for this on /. it's nothing like the bad karma the US will have when the whole world starts having to deal with the agricultural difficulties of changing climates and weather patterns.