Lost in Translation

I wrote recently about the goings-on at the Council of the European Union, and their strange reason for not supporting GNU/Linux users. But now, it seems, everything has been explained:

The European Union has blamed a translation mistake for its claim that it cannot legally support Linux.

Oh, that's OK, then. But, er, what exactly happened?

A spokesman for the Council of the EU, the Union's representative body, told ZDNet UK: "It was originally written in French, and the French version has no such statement. So it is a mistake."

Hm: the statement didn't exist, and then a "translation error" made it come into existence? How odd. But wait, there's more:

The spokesman explained that the service was only fully launched in September, and there was a need to get the service up and running, even if that meant not supporting all operating systems. He also said there was a cost, and complexity, of supporting additional operating systems such as Linux. And he added: "If we change, it is not only for Linux, we would have to open up to all open sources."

Now, hang on a minute: supporting GNU/Linux just means making RealAudio feeds available, since these can be played by open source systems as well as on proprietary systems. That's one more format, not an infinitude of "open sources" - just like many Web sites provide.

This is beginning to get fishier than the EU's fisheries policy....

Platform-Independent Petitioners

One of the great things about the Internet is that it lets people take the initiative in all sorts of ways. Take, for example, the current brouhaha over the live streaming service of the Council of the European Union - or rather, the lack of it for certain users:

On which platforms can I view the live streaming media service of the Council of the European Union?

The live streaming media service of the Council of the European Union can be viewed on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh platforms. We cannot support Linux in a legal way. So the answer is: No support for Linux.

The question is, what can be done? The answer - maybe not a lot, but petitions have a long and honourable history in the democratic tradition; such things certainly won't hurt, and at the very least provide a practical demonstration that some people care. If you're an EU taxpayer, I urge you to add your voice - all you need to give is a name and an email, and the latter is not displayed.

And remember: the Internet is platform independent, so there's no excuse not to....