Why ? European Union should only support Community / Open Standards. EU uses lots of community money, please use that money in a way that benefits the community.
The trend is toward Opensource such as Linux. The reasons are multiple, and security is certainly one. MS Vista has already been shown to be anything but secure. And users such as me are migrating away from Windows for new applications as time goes on.
The European Union must start using Open Standards instead of closed Proprietary file formats to encode its data, so its people may access that data without restraint, regardless of platform and wealth.
Easy answer to this problem, there are plenty of commonly used Free and Open codecs that can be used, please don't discriminate against us users and support the free open sourced codecs for your streams. Government should use NON-PROPRIETARY FORMATS ONLY
It is incomprehensible how EU legislation can prevent using non-microsoft formats, especially because EU has convicted Microsoft of abusing it's monopoly position. If what the faq says is true there is a serious need for change of the directives.
"We cannot support Linux in a legal way."
Then it is time the EU finds a company that employs people that are smart enough to pick a format that is not encumbered by idiotic licences.
I take it you will send me the approximately 10 * EUR200,- = EUR200,- that I need to buy Windows licenses for the rest of my life, so that I can access the content that was created with my taxpayers money in the first place?
Please do not support a monopoly by locking out users of alternative systems. A monopoly is illegal in and of itself. Ones own actions should not provide monopoly support.
Get a grip, If all you do is listen to the microsoft rep then you'll always be wasting public money. Time for you to use a non-proprietary format. We the people are sick of this Microsoft BS
