If nothing else, the first two items in that FAQ demonstrate such an extraordinary level of technical and legal incompetence on the part of the service provider that this matter should be of concern to the European citizen and taxpayer. Please straighten your bananas.
When you think how much the EU invests in translation services to make its affairs transparent and accessible, this policy sabotages democracy - change it NOW!
Interoperability through open standards is key to the survival of information for future generation, this _must_ be addressed, especially if the information concerned is supposed to be public as part of a democratic process.
I know how easy it is to fall into something like Microsoft's WMV for a solution, but there are many other open solutions out there that are better. Better for everyone. I mean, this stuff is public domain, right? So why should we have to pay the Microsoft/Apple tax to watch it? Please, AVI or something.
I can watch the archive on Linux using mplayer. The only reason the Council say they won't support Linux is laziness. Claiming it is a legal problem is just plain lying.
This is disgusting, first the EU sues Microsoft for their monopolistic behaviour, and then they do everything to undermine their own courts decisions.
I smell corruption!
We Europeans spend a lot of effort not to discriminate people with minoriy languages. And that is a good thing, we should value cultural diversity.
How can it be that the EU then discriminates against minority computer users?
We should value cultural diversity here too. It makes Europe strong.
I refuse to believe that you can not / will not support a transparent format.As a legal governmental body you owe it to your taxpayers to do so. But hey, we all know that big business controls the political arena. Maybe you can charge your citiezens instead, I bet you'd find a format for that.
Give us a break!!!
We will stand up for our right to use Linux! This is important for us, and we shall fight on the web, we shall fight in the meeting rooms, we shell fight in the elections and in the media, we shall fight in the blogs; We shall be more numerous every day!
Through the use of closed and limited systems you only perpetuate the monopolistic practices of company's like Microsoft and are helping to destroy the computing industry. For a organization that spent a long time in a legal battle with Microsoft i feel that you are being deeply hypocritical.
I can't use this service by now. And I just want to be able to do it without paying any money.
The way they do this I'm in the need of an extra Windows XP licence fee. Or better, buying a mac.
If at least they used some Flash streaming server, like everyone does: Youtube, video google, etc.
open format is the only way to go. we cannot be held ransom endlessly by big corporations, who more or less blackmail us to using ONLY their solutions.
You are supposedly representatives of the people ultimately put in office by the people for the people. In this you must be open and make information available to everyone. If you claim there is no legal way to support linux then perhaps this is representative of the problems of current legislation and the need for reform of copyright and patent laws. The "government" cannot be owned or controlled by corporations!
How much money did they get from the convicted monopolist MacroShaft for this policy?? And when did smoking crack become legal in Europe? Linux is the easiest of all to support legally. Please wake up, and use a free open-source universal standard. Don't discriminate against those who choose to use transparent computing, legally... Thank you.
Why use a media type that will only work on 85% of computers when you can choose a standard one that will work on 100% of computers? Immediately discharge whoever decided to use WMV. It is the LAST "media" type anyone should select for transparent work.
"We cannot support Linux in a legal way" - I presume that is true while you are using WMV? A switch to a different format would solve that.
In any case, the free/open-source community would be glad to help out - for free, of course - in solving this matter.
Many of us use linux for daily computing, and others choose not to use Microsoft software for security reasons. Something that purports to be an opening of government should obviously be accessible to all.
Using a closed proprietary video format from a company which has actually been prosecuted, convicted and heavily fined by the EU for its nefarious activities does nothing to lessen the reputation of the EU as an impenetrable, smug, self serving, incompetent, Kafkaesque bureaucracy. If anything discriminating against EU citizens who are Linux users is illegal.
Linux is a major platform, and with such rising acceptance should by no means be excluded from your support. Why pick a proprietary format when it can simply be done with several other that are more effective and better supported?
No public media service should be allowed to operate on private software Push forward open source software so we can fix what is wrong with the "internets"
