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A response from my MEP about EIF2
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2009/12/02/a-response-from-my-mep-about-eif2/
Closed Is New Open: Software Industry Bends Standards
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Interoperability Framework,
| EIF, regulates how public agencies,
| citizens and businesses communicate with
| other on a software level. Now an alliance
| of proprietary ventures has had an
| influence on the EIF draft.
|
| An earlier EIF draft from the summer of
| 2008 had a lot of promise. At that time the
| IDABC (a EU commision with the unwieldy
| name Interoperable Delivery of European
| eGovernment Services to Public
| Administrations, Businesses and Citizens)
| invited the general public in the form of
| countless groups and individuals to
| participate in the framework. This
| participation provoked as many as 54
| responses. The result was a draft that
| promulgated software openness and
| interoperability and seemed to concur with
| the principles of the Free Software
| Foundation Europe (FSFE).
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Closed-Is-New-Open-Software-Industry-Bends-Standards
Newsflash for GE, you're already using 'risky' open source
,----[ Quote ]
| Second, Gyorgy's assertions are ironic
| given GE's widespread use of JBoss, Linux
| (in GE Healthcare and elsewhere), Alfresco,
| MySQL, and other open-source projects, in
| Europe and globally. Contrary to Gyorgy's
| assertion, these aren't "internal
| playground type" applications. Some of them
| are mission critical by anyone's standards.
|
| I am personally familiar with several of
| these.
|
| So is Gyorgy's boss, GE's global CIO Gary
| Reiner. Reiner not so long ago purchased an
| enterprise subscription for MySQL when he
| discovered that GE was running MySQL all
| over the place, and not solely for internal
| "playground" sort of applications.
|
| Apparently, no one sent Gyorgy the memo
| that spells out areas in which GE is
| actually sponsoring open-source projects
| (like VTK), in addition to its broad
| adoption of open source. I suspect Gyorgy
| isn't the only one to have missed the memo.
| After all, the CIO is the last one to know.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10407059-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Recent:
Eurocrats face proprietary FUD attack
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission effort to move the continent toward open standards is
| being threatened by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) from a group favoring
| proprietary solutions.
|
| [...]
|
| Clear out the rhetoric and Zuck is saying that monopolies created by patents,
| and only such monopolies, allow technology to move forward, and that a regime
| that truly demands open standards is an attempt to âimpose one business model
| over another.â
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=4490
Complaints against EU open source agenda may overlook a policy breakthrough
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission policy review white paper released last week (PDF
| available here) was brought to light in the US this week by virtue of a
| comment from its most vocal opposition. Yesterday, press sources including
| IDG's Paul Meller quoted the Association for Competitive Technology's
| Jonathan Zuck as taking sides -- not surprisingly -- against the white paper,
| accusing the EC of bias in favor of open source software producers over
| commercial manufacturers.
|
| "We remain concerned that the policy framework suggested in the white paper
| seems to favor open source software over proprietary software to achieve more
| interoperability," reads another citation of Zuck's statement. Ironically,
| Zuck's ACT Web site from which the statement originated appeared to be the
| victim of a crash in its open source asset management system this morning, so
| only second-hand citations of Zuck were available today.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/Complaints-against-EU-open-source-agenda-may-overlook-a-policy-breakthrough/1246985525
Eurocrats face proprietary FUD attack
,----[ Quote ]
| Correction from ACT
| Hey, just stopping by to make small apology and perhaps a quick comment.
| First, our statement on the recent Whitepaper on ICT Standardization was
| based on an old draft and released in error. My apology is here:
|
| http://blog.actonline.org/2009/07/our-own-own-goal.html
|
| However, dude, you're all over the map here. First you're referring to a
| press release from a year ago about something called the European
| Interoperability Framework and while that document is still evolving, I
| stand by our statment. One of the very examples you use of 802.11 would
| not be allowed in public producrment under the EIF because it's patent
| encumbered and royalty bearing.
|
| Happy to talk more. Next time you want to write about what I think, why
| not get my opinion first?
|
| Jonathan Zuck
| Pres.
| ACT
`----
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-10535-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=66580&messageID=1257746
Peeping Larry
,----[ Quote ]
| That wasn't enough for Ellison. Oracle retained Washington-based
| Investigative Group International to probe the pro-Microsoft spinners in the
| antitrust battle. I.G.I. hit pay dirt. Oracle says that in the trash of the
| Independent Institute--which took out pro-Microsoft ads signed by leading
| academics--investigators found evidence that Microsoft had given the group
| more than $200,000. (The Independent Institute insists its positions have
| been unaffected by any support from Microsoft.)
`----
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,49039,00.html
Oracle-MS flap -- how it happened
,----[ Quote ]
| Oracle next turned its sights on the Microsoft-backed Association for
| Competitive Technology, which in January announced it would file a
| friend-of-the-court brief on Microsoft's behalf, using a team of prestigious
| former government lawyers. Oracle's Washington team viewed the move as
| outrageous, given the probability that the brief would be paid for with money
| from Microsoft itself. In April, Oracle told IGI to look into ACT.
|
| Soon yet another player surfaced: the National Taxpayers Union. It had long
| been publicly criticizing a suit against Microsoft by state attorneys general
| as "government-led larceny of Microsoft's intellectual property." In mid-May,
| as the group renewed its attacks on the government, Oracle again suspected
| the hidden hand of its software foe. Once again, it dispatched IGI, which
| promptly went trash-hunting. IGI discovered that the National Taxpayers Union
| had received more than $200,000 from Microsoft. That information surfaced in
| The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post in May.
|
| [...]
|
| It was trash-hunting at ACT, however, that ultimately brought Oracle's
| entanglement to light. For that, Oracle can thank Robert M. Walters and a
| conscientious cleaning crew.
|
| In May, Walters, an amiable former journalist who was IGI's chief
| anti-Microsoft detective, leased an office near ACT's Washington offices. He
| used his own name but identified himself as an official of "Upstream
| Technologies."
|
| [...]
|
| Walters also paid $4,445 to lease the office space near ACT using a check
| drawn on his personal bank account, according to records obtained by the
| Journal. And he used the telephone in the Upstream office to call his home
| and his wife at her office. Those calls later were easily traced because they
| were routed through the building's computerized phone system. Together, these
| steps bore the mark of a detective who appeared not particularly worried
| about covering his true identity. In June of 1999, Washington lobbyists for
| software giant Oracle Corp. grew dismayed by the skill with which Oracle's
| bitterest rival, Microsoft Corp., seemed to be manipulating public opinion.
| As Microsoft faced the antitrust fight of its life, a group called the
| Independent Institute bought full-page newspaper ads citing 240 academics who
| criticized the government's antitrust attack on Microsoft.
|
| [...]
|
| It wasn't long before IGI produced results: Internal documents showing that
| Microsoft had paid Independent Institute, based in Oakland, Calif., $153,000.
| Independent Institute President David Theroux suspects that information was
| stolen. People familiar with the operation, however, intimate that it was
| obtained by rifling through trash, a practice that isn't illegal. IGI
| Chairman Terry Lenzner said Wednesday that his firm "abides by a rigorous
| code of ethics and conducts all of its investigations in a lawful manner,"
| and that its work for Oracle "was conducted in strict accordance with these
| standards."
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-96149.html
EU open-source document reflects Microsoft influence
,----[ Quote ]
| One such editor is Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for
| Competitive Technology, a lobbying organization with strong ties to
| Microsoft. There is nothing wrong with Microsoft making its voice heard in
| the software strategy development process, as it stands to gain or lose much
| in the process, but it does make for some interesting political gamesmanship
| in the document.
|
| While the draft doesn't make it obvious who is saying what, there are
| numerous instances where editors have tried to soften the appeal of open
| source or downplay its significance, repeatedly trying to insist that open
| source not be called out as more significant than proprietary software.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10193433-16.html
How to Hijack an EU Open Source Strategy Paper
,----[ Quote ]
| Others as in Microsoft and mates.
|
| All-in-all, the modifications to the document provide a fascinating insight
| into how lobbyists operate in their attempt to neuter threats to their
| constituencies through the shameless evisceration and outright inversion of
| content. Fortunately, when the final strategy document comes out, we will be
| able to pinpoint exactly where ACT's agenda has been inserted. Of course,
| before then we need to make the above document as widely known as possible,
| so that the relevant people at the European Union are aware of what's going
| on, and maybe even take action to prevent this gross distortion of the
| paper's purpose.
|
| In addition, we must ensure that Wikileaks can continue to provide its
| invaluable service. The world of openness â including open source - would be
| the poorer without it. To that end, we need to support its current call for
| funds to help it carry on its work, and I urge you to make a donation,
| however modest.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/how-hijack-eu-open-source-strategy-paper
European Commission OSS Strategy Draft, Mar 2009
,----[ Quote ]
| This file is an edited version of the EU OSS Strategy draft with the input of
| Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology, an
| organisation that has strong ties with Microsoft[1]
|
| The file is a draft for an expert panel formed by the European Commission.
| This panel is divided into workgroup (IPR, Open Source, digital life, etc.)
| ACT and Comptia have been infiltrating every workgroup, even the one on Open
| Source (WG 7). They are doing the best they can to drown any initiative that
| would not only promote OSS in Europe but also that could help Europe create a
| sucessful European software sector.
|
| The audience for this document could be journalists who would be interested
| in getting to know more how lobbies of all kind influence the European
| institutions. Here it is perhaps even more stringent as ACT is clearly an US
| organization with ties to Microsoft. Verifications might not be easy as this
| is an internal draft. The best contact might be commission personnel:
| Lars.PEDERSEN@xxxxxxxxxxxx ; Michel.Lacroix@xxxxxxxxxxxx
|
| It has been leaked as it is important to have the public know how actual
| policy making is being influenced by lobbies that are precisely under the
| legal scrutiny of the European Commission. The urgency of the publication of
| this document is real in the sense that outside pressure would foce the
| Commission to "clean the committees" or at least give a lesser credit to the
| work of this workgroup.
`----
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/European_Commission_OSS_Strategy_Draft%2C_Mar_2009
Microsoft gains familiar ally in IE antitrust battle in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. gained a familiar ally in its latest antitrust battle with
| the European Commission today when the Association for Competitive Technology
| (ACT) was accepted as an interested third party in the case.
|
| [...]
|
| Washington-based ACT, whose members include Microsoft, Oracle, eBay and
| dozens of smaller companies, stood by Microsoft in an earlier European
| antitrust case that resulted in the software vendor being found guilty of
| monopoly abuse in 2004. The group made passionate arguments in favor of
| Microsoft during hearings held by the EC and the appeals process at the
| European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131834
ACT backs Microsoft in Brussels' IE legal spat
,----[ Quote ]
| The Association for Competitive Technology has been accepted as an interested
| third party in the case.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/21/act_supports_ie_eu_case/
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