That is really a bad move. Google buys Etherpad just to close it down. I would argue that Etherpad is the best online tool I came across during the last 2 years. Why do they do that to me?

Now what are the alternatives:

1. http://collabedit.com – At least one generation behind but usable.
2. Google Docs – Oh…. not today.
3. Co-Ment – better for commenting but a usable collaboration tool.

Copyright is in reform needs. The objective feels a bit like the movie plot kitsch of Metropolis, how to reconcile the heart and the hand of the digital environment. One approach by trade politicians is currently undertaken by e.g. a planned Trade Treaty, ACTA, which aims to tighten copyright enforcement and use so called digital rights management measures. Also the Commission investigates copyright licensing legal ambushes. Another approach is of intellectual, discoursive nature. No one really knows how to adapt copyright to the digital environment and make it sustainable. So the idea was to get the minds and interested parties together to discuss the future of copyright in an open, sea side remote location as Wilhelmshaven, the famous Prussian North Sea war port. Get the trias author-intermediary-user, as Dr. Joachim Losehand points out, to talk with each other, not about each other. Times are changing, so is copyright.

A preliminary website is up and running here:

http://www.urheberrechtstage.de/

A call for paper is preannounced, the event would take place 4-6 June 2010 in Wilhelmshaven.

The Gnome Asia Summit in Vietnam was impressive. Mario shared a whole lot of information about that effort through all stages of the project life cycle, the negotiation with partners and the difficulties and made me kind of feel uncomfortable that I was unable to join his event myself this year. So here is the press release:

 

GNOME.Asia Summit 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) attracted 1465 developers, students, business professionals and government officials establishing Vietnam as one of the top spots for the Free and Open Source community and businesses.

14 countries, 79 speakers with 34 from outside of Vietnam, 109 talks, presentations and panels and 138 volunteers (44 males, 94 females) – these are the numbers of the GNOME.Asia Summit 2009 at Quang Trung Software City, Vietnam, announced by the organization committee.

Mario Behling, chair of the summit, says: “I am excited to see such a huge interest of the free software community. The summit in Vietnam is one of the top IT events in Asia in 2009 and I am especially happy to see a big participation from young women. 60 percent of all participants were women.”

“The 2009 summit is a big encouragement. The support we received internationally as well as through the local community has been fantastic.” Hong Phuc Dang, head of the Vietnamese Organization team adds. “We will continue to work hard to spread knowledge and education with Free and Open Source software (FOSS), content and Open hardware. IT and FOSS offer new income opportunities for local companies and provide the tools for families to improve their lives.”, Ms. Dang goes on.

In her keynote Stormy Peters, Executive Chairwomen of the GNOME Foundation, gave an introduction to the current advancements of the GNOME project. The GNOME projects offers contributors a space to learn about Free and Open Source Software, but also about design or other languages, Peters explained.

GNOME.Asia is the first community event of its kind in Vietnam. The engagement of big international actors, including SUN Microsystems, IBM, Google and Intel reflects the increasing importance of Open Source solutions and freely licensed Software for businesses in Asia.

A focus of the summit were lightweight Linux solutions for businesses and households. Tobias Gruetzmacher from Germany presented energy efficient thin clients. In a workshop students learned how to build a thin client from components or how to flash routers with Freifunk. Ping-Hsun Chen presented xPUD a webOS with LXDE and GNOME components developed since 2007. Core developers of the faster X-environment LXDE Fred Chien and Andrew Lee offered insights to the latest developements of the GNOME based desktop.

OpenOffice.org as a community partner was presented by Louis Suarez-Potts, who portrayed cooperation opportunities with the Asian community. Other projects present were Inkscape with Andy Fitzsimon, Songbird and OpenSolaris with Alfred Peng, moonOS with Chanrithy Thim Rithy, OpenStreetMap with Khanh Le Ngoc Quoc, Emily Chen for GNOME Beijing, KmerOS with Chantra Be, Statusnet (identi.ca) with Jon Phillips and Pockey Lam and Fred Muller from the Beijinglug.

The organization team also announced plans for events in Vietnam in 2010. From Nov. 12-14, 2010 FOSSASIA, the biggest FOSS event in South East Asia, will be held in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon). FOSSASIA is modeled after international community meet ups like FOSDEM in Belgium, Froscon in Germany and FISL in Brazil. The focus for FOSSASIA 2010 are Lightweight Computing and Women in IT.

Please find more information about GNOME.Asia 2009 here: http://2009.gnome.asia
Info about FOSSASIA 2010 can be found at: http://fossasia.org

A colleague informed me that I completely overlooked the TACD recommendations on IPR enforcement (patents, copyright, trademarks etc.) measures. TACD stands for the transatlantic consumer dialogue and they officially represent “consumers” as stakeholders in the ongoing transatlantic Transatlantic Economic Council and ACTA negotiations as a counterpart to TABD, the transatlantic business dialogue.

It follows a kind of estates model of governance. So the largest consumer organisations are represented in TACD. Europe does not have a culture of consumer representation (we govern the state as citizens according our democratic principles) but in the US it is a very common notion, as a complement or even counterpart of industry interests.

The resolution of TACD follows from the alliance character of their activities which makes it necessary to hold these conventions and agree on a common position. The recommendations are very interesting and pragmatic for a “committee drafte and approved” document.

Today a larger stakeholder conference about white space allocation / digital dividend policy takes place in Brussels, from the announcement:

Organised in association with Analysys Mason, the authors of the report on which the Commission’s Digital Dividend roadmap (due for release this Autumn) will be based, this one-day interactive policy forum is strategically timed to offer stakeholders the opportunity to discuss the proposals put forward in more detail and on the next steps that now need to be taken to ensure that Europe is able to reap the benefits of the digital dividend as soon as possible. It will offer top level speakers and delegates a platform for a frank and interactive debate on the best way forward in implementing a European Digital Dividend strategy to ensure that maximum socio-economic benefits are achieved.

The final report (345 pages) can be downloaded here. It is very technical as compared to other policy documents. Page 33 you find ambitious figures about the national costs. The Executive summary is just 46 pages.

I wonder how this report would take the Toia report from the European Parliament into account. It seems a bit upfront to claim that the Commission report would be based on the consortial study of Analysis-Mason. It makes the report vulnerable to attacks.

The EU-Constitution, later rebranded as the Lisbon Treaty did not get a very warm reception. 1. December is Lisbon day, the new Treaty enters into force. And what is the Council of Ministers about to do 30 November? This monday the ministers are about to pass the SWIFT agreement with the United States prior to the parliament getting new oversight competences. An affront against the European Parliament and “good governance” in Europe under the Swedish Council Presidency.

The SWIFT agreement legalises the business espionage of American services on European bank transaction data which is managed by a private Belgium consortial company called S.W.I.F.T. Officially around 3500 files a year are checked for counter-terrorism purposes, results are shared with European security agencies. But the data is extremely poisonous because financial transmission data reveals confidential business information which would seriously undermine the trust in the banking system. In terms of financial markets, transaction data information as such is of monetary value. Unilateral disclosure could distort financial market information allocation. In the summer when it was about to be set as an “A-Point” in the Council I felt it important to sent out a German press release.

Surprisingly the SWIFT debate does not receive much attention in the English news. In Germany it is big news. The Bundesrat, the Chamber of Federal States filed a strong resolution. The Libdems, among them Minister of Justice Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger are very sensitive to the issue. The German banking sector is alerted. In the middle of the month four nations blocked the agreement, among them also France, Finland and Austria. A fierce political battle happens behind the scenes. The current German position is abstention. Ironically Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger gets a lot of critical press now as if she was the driving force, not Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Whatever is decided tomorrow, an adoption would strongly undermine the Lisbon confidence. I fully agree with Elmar Brok (CDU) who called it an affront against citizens of the Union. The Swedish Presidency would be well advised to remove the vote from the agenda for tomorrow, just as a matter of good administration.

In der linken Zeitung taz äußert sich Constanze Kurz zum Thema ACTA. Mir scheint es sehr wichtig, bei diesem Thema für mehr öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit zu sorgen, möchte trotzdem die groben Aussagen präzisieren:

Wer das vor zehn Jahren berichtet hätte, wäre als Verschwörungstheoretiker abgestempelt worden: Vertreter der Industrieländer verhandeln geheim über einen internationalen Vertrag. Ohne Parlamentsmandat und öffentliche Aufsicht, ohne etwas über Ziel und Inhalt preiszugeben.

So stimmt diese Aussage nicht. Erstens ist Transparenzmangel und Politikenwäsche (“policy laundry”) über die Handelsschiene vollkommen üblich, so merkwürdig das erscheinen mag. Kaum jemanden mit Erfahrungen im Handelsbereich wird daher eine vollkommen berechtigte prozessuale Kritik beeindrucken. Neu ist, dass nicht Drittstaaten sondern die Staatsangehörigen von Industrieländern selbst die Früchte dieses demokratiebedrohenden Missbrauchs von Handelsinstrumenten ernten.

Allein in Brüssel gab zwei “Anhörungen”, an einer habe ich für einen Softwareverband teilgenommen. Die Inhalte sind auch kein Geheimnis, nur der genaue Wortlaut und Stand der Verhandlungen ist nicht bekannt. Ganz klar soll im Internetkapitel die 3-Streiche Regelung enthalten sein, die Internetzugangsdienstleister in die Pflicht nimmt, die Nutzung ihrer Kunden zu überwachen, also weiter das “mere conduit” Prinzip unterminiert.

Des weiteren gab es vor einem Jahr einen etwas unglücklichen Bericht eines rechtskonservativen Italienischen Abgeordneten im Europaparlament G. Susta. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatten die meisten Verbände noch keine Positionierung zum Thema, der Bericht fordert u.a. die Offenlegung von entsprechenden Dokumenten aus der Verhandlung. Auch die Industrie war keinesfalls die treibende Kraft. Es gab zahlreiche parlamentarische Anfragen zum Thema ACTA, nur fehlte die breite öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit.

Geht es um einen Geheimplan zur Rettung vor einem Emmerich-Ende der Menschheit? Nein, es ist viel profaner. Mit Acta, dem Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, soll vorgeblich der Handel mit gefälschten Produkten eingedämmt werden.

Natürlich ist das nur das Etikett, daran glaubt niemand. Gleichwohl geht es bei ACTA rein formal nur um Handel. Denn ein Handelsprozess muss etwas mit Handel zu tun haben. Warum ein Handelsprozess? Diese Frage habe ich den Zuständigen gestellt. Der Grund für einen Handelsprozess sui generis ist, dass alle anderen internationalen Verfahren festgefahren sind. UIm Sinne eines Befürworters dieser Politiken ist es daher nachvollziebar einen weiteren Versuche einer Koalition der Willigen zu unternehmen. Und neben ACTA werden die gleichen Inhalte noch bilateral verhandelt.

Entgegen des Eindrucks von Constanze Kurz ist Transparenzmangel bei Handelsverfahren ganz normal und eine generische Schieflage, die an Brisanz gewinnt, weil nunmehr regulative und legislative Angelegenheiten ihren Weg in Handelsabkommen finden. Der Handelsausschuss hat merkwürdigerweise sich dieses Jahr sogar dafür eingesetzt, dass handelsbezogene Dokumente im Allgemeinen nicht offengelegt werden.

ACTA ist in vielerlei Hinsicht “technisch” interessant, zum Bespiel im Hinblick auf Kompetenzen der Kommission zum Strafrecht, zum Beispiel hinsichtlich der Frage wie man die 3-Streiche Lösung verfassungskonform realisieren kann, im Hinblick auf seine Administration durch die EU. Oder die Verträglichkeit des Schutzes von Geographischen Indikatoren, was von der EU-Seite sehr in diesen Debatten gepusht wird, mit dem Desiderat des Abbaus von Handelshemmnissen in den EU-Verträgen. Geografische Indikatoren sind nämlich solche Handelshemmnisse, vor allem für landwirtschaftliche Güter.

Die Aufmerksamkeit der Öffentlichkeit ist gerade jetzt wichtig. Nicht nur hinsichtlich ACTA. Der neue Handelskommissar de Gucht wird sich sicherlich demnächst vom Parlament Fragen stellen lassen müssen.

Sharp mag es solar:

Anlässlich des 50. Solar-Jubiläums hat Sharp einen eigenen Videokanal auf YouTube eingerichtet. Dort stehen den Internetnutzerinnen und -nutzern ab sofort Filme zu verschiedenen Themen rund um die Photovoltaik zur Auswahl. Auch Interviews mit führenden Persönlichkeiten aus der Photovoltaik Branche wie Dr. Franz Alt, Dipl. Meteorologe Sven Plöger und Klimaforscher Prof. Mojib Latif sind zu sehen.

Und hier ist der etwas angegraut sympathisch wirkende Kanal von Sharp.

Here are the patent applications and grant from the US company Intellectual Ventures.

bulk.resource.org, a service of Public.Resource.Org.

“LOCKSS system has permission to collect, preserve, and
serve this open access Archival Unit.”

This system contains UNSUPPORTED, AS-IS copies of selected
U.S. government archives.

Anyone interested to analyse the zipped documents which contain XML files? A few years ago colleagues from Sweden created the GAUSS patent database, an early attempt to make patent information more accessible.