If the FAQ alleges legal reasons then the Council is twice a lier:
1- Software patents are illegal in the EU, and there is legal and free software for video broadcast in the internet
2.- If swpats were legal then current broadcasts for Mac and MS Windows would surely breach patents the Council does not even know that apply and therefore has not licensed, because there is no reliable way to search them.
So there is either no legal problem to grant access to everyone or there is aready a legal problem what they're doing know.
But the fact is that swpats are illegal and discrimination of citizens too, so the only legal problem is with the current practice.
The EU should go as a good example in using open formats, especially considering the way MS has not complied with their demands. And not least to ensure that everyone has the access to this information by right.
Democratic politics must not be open and accountable to the tax payer no matter which operating system we use. I should not have to buy microsoft or Apple products to watch the EU when I can get better ones for free.
Why does EU pressure us to use the products of either MS (which i hate!) or apple (which i can't afford!)...think about it, we can't all afford expensive OS!
Yet another proof of that *some* countries in the EU still don't want documents to be open for everyone... (the policy in finland sweden denmark have been that everything that conserns ppl of the country should have access to the data, for nearly a houndred years :P )
It is the councils duty to see to it that the information they produce can be received by every citizen in the EU. With about 5 to 10% computerusers with Linux as their Operating system you cannot use a MS-specific fileformat.
Because everybody should have to freedom to give those large software corparations the finger, choose to use free software, and (most important) being ABLE to use it in a normal way. Especially when it concerns their governement. we are having trouble enough with those closed formats allready! By the way, I thought the EU had an issue with those very closed formats. But on the other side they force their civilians to use them?? What is this?
I'm French and I'm using Ubuntu Linux distribution and I don't have the RIGHT to watch the "Streaming Service of the Council of the European Union". Why it ?
Linux is a widely used operating system these days and should be taken into account when developing this kind of services. Especially when it comes to governments and EU.
the european counsil is the succesor of the mine industry lobby, no wonder you guy's like closed formats
Thre's nothing democratic about you.
Prove me wrong in an open format
I think it's bull**** to force everyone to use open document types, but the way that they say, i can understand the anger.. A simple mpg stream would do just fine, and thats a standard format that any mediaplayer supports!
I think that it is a shame that in EU citizens are being divided into better (those who use MS Windows or MacOS) and worse (all other, the free people). I think that we have the right to information. Current situation forces people to buy software from one, specified vendor and it is EU that forces people to do so! This should not ever happen, while there are free alternatives for properiaty video formats.
The use of any proprietary formats, such as M.S. Media Player or RealPlayer, indicates to me an extreme lack of intelligence or that someone has just been bought off. Please use a universal and Open format, of any kind. and remember streaming media is no different than any other document format!
