As a recent Linux convent this lack of 'freedom' surprises and disappoints me. For all those not too poor to be able to buy and OS, The EU says "no go".
When you don't support open source software, you are saying: "We support Microsoft." Microsoft can support itself, no problem, in fact, that IS THE PROBLEM!
Dear sirs, I simply don't understand what you mean by "We cannot support Linux in a legal way."! Can you please give us Linux users (we are employing Linux almost exclusively at our university departmeht!) a concrete reason why support for Linux is not legal?
Thanks a lot, Reinhold Kainhofer
I am totally against you proposal to exclude Linux from viewing your news & content, and WMV is crappy, and you support it why? because its made by Microsoft?you need to grow up
Democracy can only be achieved in an environment of freedom. This includes freedom from proprietary platforms. Any action in favour of proprietary platforms over non-proprietary platforms is a blow against democracy.
By not supporting open formats the EU gives control over the streams and archives to a few companies it an not control. In my opinion a very bad thing. Every citizen in the EU should be able to follow the precedings without being forced into using select vendors.
The fact that you cannot support Linux in a legal way is not Linux fault. EU has the power to make it legal, for everyone, by adopting/establishing free/gratis and open standards, for all data formats used by/in EU. EU should lead in these matters, not follow!
It is sad to see a group of "free" and democratic nations use such a restrictive policy. Freedom of information is tremendously more important than a few politicians lining their pocketbooks.
As a US citizen and investor in Microsoft and Apple; I'm certainly amused and titillated by the idea that EU organizations would legislate that the only legal way to get access to their information is by paying essentially a tax to a couple US firms. But c'mon, that certainly can't be the case yet. What law makes it illegal to allow people information about the Council of the EU without paying US companies for that right?!? Or are you just preparing for the future when someone like Balmer buys enough of your politicians to pass such laws?
Please use a non patent infringed format for your broadcasts. Non open formats are unfair and as you are a government agency, you are responsible for allowing the public access to the content you create.
It is against the very idea of democracy to keep a certain able part of the union in the dark - able because the standards are in place and there are no legal issues involved in encoding the format in an open way.
I agree with Mo Abrhams,be more open to linux,see what you can do to support it,it not that hard. just translate all the media files into OGG and upload :)
There really is no valid reason why you can't move from proprietary streaming formats to a more open ones. There are numerous alternatives out there you could look into. Saying otherwise is simply ignorant or a case of really bad technology advisers.
The black hole that is the EU, absorbing money at an astounding rate, should at least try and make its proceeding available to all. In this case an open-source, cross-platform and advanced solution should be used. Using a Microsoft format seems at odds with the EU's case against said company...
Saying you can't legally support streaming on Linux is ridiculuous. Practical or economical issues would be totally understandable, but legal ones not, especially not if not enlighting the european Linux users of the exact nature of the legal issues...
I am an EU citizen who uses Linux as my main computer. Why should I have to support US corporations in order to read EU information provided by the taxes I pay.
There are plenty of legal ways to create content capable of being seen legally on Linux - a FAQ that says otherwise is just incompetent.
Your statement that you're unable to support Linux "lawfully" is pure nonsense. Any & all data offered by the EU should be provided in an open & unencumbered format.
You are entirely wrong in your assumption that you cannot legally support Linux, there are a large number of ways in which you could do so. Please look again into the issue.
this is really ignorant of the EU to officially not support alternative codecs for media-streams,by doing this,they are limiting our freedom to use other systems,and giving Microsoft the power to do what it wants to do...
This is a case of either a serious lack of knowledge or a lack of interest. There are options. If they feel they have to use a proprietary option, there is Real. The BBC makes content available in Real format and I watch it legally in Linux. Why can't the EU?
Is this the goal of the EU? Deliberately alienating people, and forcing us to subscribe to the software of whatever companies happen to threaten the EU with job losses? To think the EU presents itself as 'democratic' - the only people with any sway are the multinational corporations, and not the citizens
