Comments on: Reality Check: No, Daily Tech, EU isn’t forcing Adobe Flash on the iPhone

By: wolf

wolf — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:12:33 +0000

my comment right above was supposed to start with @costello … do not completely agree …. (sorry)

By: wolf

wolf — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:11:10 +0000

do not completely agree … for example, the government recommended all states and cities to switch to linux vs. microsoft. and they are very strict when it comes to hindering competition (see MS fines). Concerning railways – sure – after all (even though light years ahead of the USA) they are still developing standards with a healthy competition of various players, but you can go from Frankfurt to Paris, From Paris to London .. all in high speed trains …. Don;t forget, the European Community alone is 27 countries (all of Europe 47 countries), very different countries in terms of development. How may countries has the USA synchronized it’s technologies with? Yep. exactly! So I’d say the accomplishments of Europe are immense and it’ll take decades to get even near that here in the USA. And thank you Dave Fitch for your comment and the link to http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/36967 – If people think Europe would push proprietary standars, they don’t get it at all, unless they actually do but want to manipulate the public by intentionally misinforming them. If we only had a credibility monitor for websites ….

By: anonymous500r

anonymous500r — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:16:39 +0000

Um, do you mean Adobe Flash? The platform that’s so closed that you can actually get the spec for it – free – from Adobe? For SWF: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf/ and FLV: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flv/ ?

You can’t get the MPEG4 specs for free (unless they’ve been reverse-engineered by enthusiasts), you have to license the patents first. Anyone can write their own SWF player and anyone can make their own FLV playback chip using these specs. So all this bollocks about how MPEG4 is so open and lovely and how Flash is so closed and evil must stop. It’s a fabrication by Apple++ writers.

[Well that explains why every modern mobile device on Earth supports playback of MPEG audio and video standards with rare incompatibilities, while no mobile devices on the planet support smoothly interoperable playback of Flash content!

Glad you uncovered this vast conspiracy of Abobe persecution. Oh wait, no it seems that you're wrong. A documented yet proprietary standard from a company with a terrible track record of incompetence is apparently not the same as a successful ISO standard created by a pool of the best technology companies in the world. - Dan]

By: gslusher

gslusher — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:06:02 +0000

The licensing mess affects us in the US, as well. I like to listen to audiobooks in my car. I mostly get British mysteries (P D James, M C Beaton, Reginald Hill, Ruth Rendell, etc), which i buy from Audible.com. I have been trying to find several Ruth Rendell books. A few weeks ago, I went to audible.com and didn’t log in. I searched on “Ruth Rendell” and, AMAZING, the books I was looking for were available. I added two to my cart, then logged in to buy them. When I went back to the cart, the books were gone. I finally found out from audible that they were not licensed to be sold in the US. When I went to audible but didn’t log in, it didn’t know where I lived and showed everything available. Once I logged in, the system would show only books licensed for the US. I don’t know WHY those books are not licensed for sale in the US.

By: Dave Fitch

Dave Fitch — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:50:45 +0000

When the EU’s Digital Agenda talks about interoperability, it’s not talking Flash, it’s talking *data* – particularly the need to get systems, platforms and partners sharing information seamlessly. Anyone who thinks this is about Flash hasn’t spent 10 seconds doing any research – it’s about the fundamental structural changes needed to make e-government work in Europe.
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/36967

By: MikieV

MikieV — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:46:47 +0000

Mike wrote in #3: “I also would welcome … forcing Apple to open up its movies and books for others to read without DRM.”

You can’t force Apple to remove DRM from “its” movies and books – because they are -not- Apple’s movies and books.

Apple and other online retailers are only only authorized to sell these items in the format the content owners allow.

Its just like music: until the content-owners relent on DRM, we won’t be able to buy/rent any books or movies which don’t have some form of DRM attached.

Not from Apple, not from -any- online retailer.

And, if you like that the EU isn’t as uptight as the US – in regard to copyright – you are gonna just -love- the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/acta-is-here.ars

By: sprockkets

sprockkets — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:18:29 +0000

Dan, you shouldn’t reference Jason Mick ever. He’s just a loser who trolls for page hits with stupid headlines. He doesn’t deserve it. Most on DT hate that idiot.

By: gus2000

gus2000 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:06:15 +0000

I find it odd that the iHaters wail about Apple’s tightly-controlled and draconian walled garden, but then cheer when the Government wants to take control instead. If you’re all about “freedom” and anti-controls, then you’re ANTI-Government and a Libertarian (which is a nice way of saying “laissez-faire anarchist”). You can’t complain about Apple having a managed ecosystem, and then insist that the Government should step in.

What the EU is doing is not CONTROL, but rather setting up a viable market to foster competition.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:39:09 +0000

I also would welcome no DRM and forcing Apple to open up its movies and books for others to read without DRM. But more likely than not, the content industries will demand for such protection rather than letting consumers choose for themselves what they want to do with it. And while the EU isn’t as strict on copyright as the US, it’ll still be a large factor in determining whether to force Apple (and effectively the content industries) to not use DRM. But this is probably a pipe dream, because then movies and books would be even more easily pirated than they already are.

By: costello

costello — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:39:04 +0000

There are more standards problems in Europe that have to be regulated by continent itself. Apple is on the end of food chain in this problem. There are Alcatel, Erickson, Bosh, Nokia, Simens, Pupin, Philps, and others, and of course all telecoms. Much of a problem is not just make systems to work with each other but to ensure that future development want compromise existing ones. This remind me of railway problem across the Europe, and right now Europe have 3 different high speed railway systems developed and non of them have continental rich. This is a painful lesson from last century. By the way if we include Russian railways the problem going exponential. Same for the all transport systems (data wired or wireless).