41355739
submission
Seeteufel writes:
The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now officially pronounced dead in the E.U. The European Parliament broadly rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement a while ago, but there was still a court case pending at the European Court of Justice about the legality of ACTA. The Commission was open about its intent to reintroduce ACTA raticication to the Parliament after a positive Court decision. Now we learn the Commission has withdrawn its questions to the Court.
40982523
submission
Seeteufel writes:
With the regulation on the unitary patent, everything is different!
40970947
submission
40511489
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Christian Ude (D), mayor of Munich, migrated the Bavarian capital to Linux and Libreoffice ("LiMux"). Now the charismatic Ude candidates as a Prime Minister of the Free State of Bavaria. He announced it wouldn't be an immidiate switch to open source but he is encouraging other Baviarian communities to follow the Munich model.
40510379
submission
Seeteufel writes:
The main Austrian copyright rightsholder lobby pressures the government to fight "Kulturterrorismus".
40510069
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Google News aggregates electronic news messages in its link farm but does not compensate the news providers. Germany is about to change that, despite the astroturfing from Mountain View and interference into the inner affairs of the nation.
40311715
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Openoffice.org "started to rot under Sun and the Oracle. Sadly, instead of donating the code to the Document Foundation, Oracle and IBM decided to increased some overload on the Apache Foundation and donated the code to them." What is your own opinion? How do you view the Libre vs. Apache split?
40099843
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Libreoffice proponents aim to change the mind of the city administration in Freiburg, Germany. The city administration proposed the City Council to switch to Microsoft Office. Libreoffice supporters wrote a letter. Currently multiple cities consider to migrate to Libreoffice despite the massive lobbying from competitors. The decision of the City Council is a political one.
39950849
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Mecca is the holy site of Islam. The center of worshipping is a black stone (Al-ajaru l-Aswad) in a corner of the Kabah complex. Saudi Arabian pilgrimage industry lead to ongoing radical rebuilding and a destruction of the ancient sites in the holy city. This summer the Bin Laden group finished a giant skyscraper complex next to the Mosque, a 485-metre-high Mecca clock tower, the alleged birth place of Muhammed was destroyed. According to the Saudi teachings preserving ancient sites would be idolatry. Ambitious plans for Mecca 2020 comprise a strange architectural mix between the World Trade Center, Speer's Germania plans and Las Vegas. Do you think cultural heritage should be preserved?
39756319
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Bad news for Pfizer. The Canadian supreme court declared their Viagra patent void: "the disclosure in the specification would not have enabled the public “to make the same successful use of the invention as the inventor could at the time of his application”.
39712769
submission
Seeteufel writes:
George W Bush voted for Barack Obama because he got confused by the voting machine:two-term Republican was confused by the instructions on his electronic voting machine and mistakenly cast a ballot he intended to discard.
39710429
submission
Seeteufel writes:
The United States relected President Obama. An international OECD envoy is apalled by the election standards he observed in the United States.
32277615
submission
Seeteufel writes:
UK Cabinet Office kicks out an advisor, Dr. Hopkirk. His consultation work for Microsoft " could be seen as a clear conflict of interest and should have been declared by the relevant parties at that meeting." The round table organised by Hopkirk concluded that FRAND licensing was the right way for sound standard policies. The UK cabinet office will discard the results from the round table and organise another one. The formal closing date for submissions to the open standards consultation is postponed to Monday, 4th June 2012.
16565868
submission
Seeteufel writes:
Daniel Schmitt, the other spokes person of Wikileaks, announced his resignation. It was revealed that he is married to the German top lobbyist of an US corporation. Wikileaks published documents from the corporation. In a radio interview the lobbyist promoted the Wikileaks plattform and explained the internal process. She also published enthusiastic journo-lobbying articles that praised her husband as her poodle.