Tuesday, May 22, 2012
New Powers to Shape EU Telecoms Single Market Mark One-Year Anniversary
See the speech by Nellie Kroes at the EUROPA Press Release at:
New powers to shape the Telecoms Single Market
Crossposted at LawPundit.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
China, America, the EU, Energy, the Environment, Dumping, Antidumping, Protective Tariffs, Quality of Manufacture, Capitalism, Socialism
One can not escape the feeling that a lot of people in the United
States government, and elsewhere, do not understand modern environmental
needs and issues, especially as regards energy. Gas-guzzling vehicles.
Apathy about the environment. No sensible energy policies. Worse, in
this industrial sector, as most others as well, the manufacturing system
is from yesteryear.
Keith Bradsher and Diane Cardwell have the story at the New York Times in U.S. Slaps Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels - NYTimes.com. What a paradoxical sector on which to put up protective tariffs. One would think the more cheap solar panels the better, given the need to lower energy costs.
What is particularly baffling is that sources in the the USA are COMPLAINING that the Chinese "non-capitalist methods" give them an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE!
If we follow the train of Alan Price's thinking, and he may well be right, a much larger socialistic Chinese behemoth is apparently far more nimble and adaptable than the backward American manufacturing system, which, by our experience, is often mired in past nostalgic centuries, methods, ideas, attitudes and politically absurd conceptions.
What did we just read, that Hewelett-Packard is to let go of as many as 30,000 employees? at a company now headed by a political favorite of the GOP?
The only measures that most American CEOs seem to understand to increase profits are outsourcing and/or cost-cutting by getting rid of employees, leaving a mass of unemployed for the government to look after.
The idea at HP is said to be that the money saved will be invested in a better-trained sales force able to generate more cash. Surely that is a joke. Is the delusion there that such measures will make HP more competitive with Canon and other competitors? Not on my desktop.
My first printer was an HP. Since then, the company HP has been resting on its laurels. Grow, or die. That is a rule of life, and a rule of business.
How about better and more competitive products? Where, in Europe, does one find products on sale that are "made in the USA"? American wares, with few exceptions, are also-rans. How much of American resources are going into research and progress, rather into the ever-filling pockets of the upper income classes?
Start there if you want to keep from being over-rolled by the Chinese.
If America thinks it is going to prosper in the future, putting up protective tariffs is not going to help a defunct system living from patent trolling, trade barriers, and completely out-of-date political ideas. No way.
Either you have free trade, or you go back in all product sectors to the old system of protective tariffs, which may not be advisable for an American manufacturing sector that has been less competitive as time goes on.
America's problem is not dumping by China.
America's problem is a structurally unsound economy geared to filling the wealth demands of company owners, vastly over-inflated salary levels of corporate executives, and unrealistic demands of stockholders for stock price appreciation. The idea that companies should concentrate on state-of-the-art production of goods and services appears to be a novelty.
Keith Bradsher and Diane Cardwell have the story at the New York Times in U.S. Slaps Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels - NYTimes.com. What a paradoxical sector on which to put up protective tariffs. One would think the more cheap solar panels the better, given the need to lower energy costs.
What is particularly baffling is that sources in the the USA are COMPLAINING that the Chinese "non-capitalist methods" give them an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE!
The article quotes lawyer Alan Price from the law firm representing the USA in the solar panel case, Wiley Rein, as follows:
The question then arises what the "good old boys" and the staunch supporters of American capitalism are doing wrong in the USA in turning modern America into a manufacturing wasteland that is no match for socialist countries?"China’s method is straightforward: it sets forth industry-specific Five-Year Plans and then uses all forms of national and local subsidies and other governmental support to quickly transfer jobs, supply chains, intellectual property and wealth, to the permanent detriment of U.S. and global manufacturers," he said. "China’s ability to ramp up and overwhelm an industry is unique and particularly devastating with new and emerging technologies, where global competitors may be less established and can be knocked out more easily and quickly."
If we follow the train of Alan Price's thinking, and he may well be right, a much larger socialistic Chinese behemoth is apparently far more nimble and adaptable than the backward American manufacturing system, which, by our experience, is often mired in past nostalgic centuries, methods, ideas, attitudes and politically absurd conceptions.
What did we just read, that Hewelett-Packard is to let go of as many as 30,000 employees? at a company now headed by a political favorite of the GOP?
The only measures that most American CEOs seem to understand to increase profits are outsourcing and/or cost-cutting by getting rid of employees, leaving a mass of unemployed for the government to look after.
The idea at HP is said to be that the money saved will be invested in a better-trained sales force able to generate more cash. Surely that is a joke. Is the delusion there that such measures will make HP more competitive with Canon and other competitors? Not on my desktop.
My first printer was an HP. Since then, the company HP has been resting on its laurels. Grow, or die. That is a rule of life, and a rule of business.
How about better and more competitive products? Where, in Europe, does one find products on sale that are "made in the USA"? American wares, with few exceptions, are also-rans. How much of American resources are going into research and progress, rather into the ever-filling pockets of the upper income classes?
Start there if you want to keep from being over-rolled by the Chinese.
If America thinks it is going to prosper in the future, putting up protective tariffs is not going to help a defunct system living from patent trolling, trade barriers, and completely out-of-date political ideas. No way.
Either you have free trade, or you go back in all product sectors to the old system of protective tariffs, which may not be advisable for an American manufacturing sector that has been less competitive as time goes on.
America's problem is not dumping by China.
America's problem is a structurally unsound economy geared to filling the wealth demands of company owners, vastly over-inflated salary levels of corporate executives, and unrealistic demands of stockholders for stock price appreciation. The idea that companies should concentrate on state-of-the-art production of goods and services appears to be a novelty.
Friday, May 18, 2012
EU Internet Cookie Opt-In Law One-Year Grace Period Ends May 26, 2012 Confronting Websites and Blogs with Serious Compliance Problems
[Our own solution to this problem is found described in the previous posting at EU Pundit.]
On May 26, 2012,
one of the more prominent legal and Internet headaches
in European Union lawmaking will dawn,
namely the question of how to abide by
the "new" EU Internet Cookie Law,
formally the "EU Privacy and Communication Directive",
which already went into effect a year ago,
but for which an extra grace period of one year was granted
to permit a standardization of website compliance -- a necessary standardization which has not happened in the interim.
Worse, the implementation of the Directive by the various EU Member States is not uniform -- creating an unnecessarily complicated situation given the cross-border nature of the Internet. See Paul McCormack at Tech Republic in Cookies and compliance: Has your website taken these six steps? where he refers to the DLA Piper report on How The EU Has Implemented The New Law on Cookies (updated December 5, 2011, showing various implementations).
Rory MccGwire, Chief Executive, BHP Information Solutions, writes as follows on May 10, 2012 at the Law Society Gazette in How the new EU cookie law affects law firms:
Privacy Law and the EU Internet Cookie Law Opt-Out Option Deadline: European Union Companies Given One Year by EU Commission to Standardize Cookie Tracking Consent Mechanism
writing
"As we previously reported at LawPundit,
the European Union "EU Internet Cookie Tracking Law" came into effect
on May 26 of this year (2011) via the 2009 EU Directive, protecting
user privacy rights by requiring that users be informed by companies of
the extent of their cookie tracking and be given the option to "opt out" of such tracking."
92% of blogs and websites use cookies, so this law applies to nearly everyone with blogs or websites or businesses located in Europe.
Many websites and blogs use third-party services without themselves knowing exactly what cookies they place.
Furthermore, many serious sites, such as online banking, social media, email programs, and yes, even search engine settings, rely on cookies for operation. How else could you post easily to Facebook or Twitter from a third-party page if there were no cookies?
Such "necessary" cookies are permitted by the EU directive as exceptions and no express opt-in is required for them since the "opt-in" is presumed from the use of the service.
The solution we adopted for our own blogs, which rely on Google Analytics, is Silktide, as described in the previous LawPundit posting.
Please be aware that we are not recommending the use or installation of this or any other solution and expressly disclaim any liability for any solution that any website, blog or other Internet presence takes regarding this EU law. When in doubt, consult your attorney.
On May 26, 2012,
one of the more prominent legal and Internet headaches
in European Union lawmaking will dawn,
namely the question of how to abide by
the "new" EU Internet Cookie Law,
formally the "EU Privacy and Communication Directive",
which already went into effect a year ago,
but for which an extra grace period of one year was granted
to permit a standardization of website compliance -- a necessary standardization which has not happened in the interim.
Worse, the implementation of the Directive by the various EU Member States is not uniform -- creating an unnecessarily complicated situation given the cross-border nature of the Internet. See Paul McCormack at Tech Republic in Cookies and compliance: Has your website taken these six steps? where he refers to the DLA Piper report on How The EU Has Implemented The New Law on Cookies (updated December 5, 2011, showing various implementations).
Rory MccGwire, Chief Executive, BHP Information Solutions, writes as follows on May 10, 2012 at the Law Society Gazette in How the new EU cookie law affects law firms:
"It’s now 10 May, we've less than three weeks to go. I know of many websites that will switch over to a compliant version a week before 26 May. But has anyone seen examples of full compliance already being put into practice on a commercial website? I would be interested to know."We focused on this problem last year at
Privacy Law and the EU Internet Cookie Law Opt-Out Option Deadline: European Union Companies Given One Year by EU Commission to Standardize Cookie Tracking Consent Mechanism
writing
92% of blogs and websites use cookies, so this law applies to nearly everyone with blogs or websites or businesses located in Europe.
Many websites and blogs use third-party services without themselves knowing exactly what cookies they place.
Furthermore, many serious sites, such as online banking, social media, email programs, and yes, even search engine settings, rely on cookies for operation. How else could you post easily to Facebook or Twitter from a third-party page if there were no cookies?
Such "necessary" cookies are permitted by the EU directive as exceptions and no express opt-in is required for them since the "opt-in" is presumed from the use of the service.
The solution we adopted for our own blogs, which rely on Google Analytics, is Silktide, as described in the previous LawPundit posting.
Please be aware that we are not recommending the use or installation of this or any other solution and expressly disclaim any liability for any solution that any website, blog or other Internet presence takes regarding this EU law. When in doubt, consult your attorney.
European Union Cookie Law Compliance Solution: A Free Open Source Plugin at Silktide together with a Definitive Guide to the Cookie Law
We have spent quite a bit of time looking for a plugin solution to
the EU Cookie Law -- about which we will report in more detail at the
next posting -- and -- until the fog clears about that EU Cookie Law --
have provisionally found a free, open source solution at Silktide that
we are going to use on our blogs, which rely on Google Analytics, as
many Blogger blogs do, for visitor stats, and Google Analytics uses
cookies.
See Silktide - Become compliant
And see also Silktide - Definitive guide to the Cookie Law
The advantage of this open source solution is that it is "opt-in" and should be compliant with the various non-uniform implementations of the various European Union Member States, some of which require prior "opt-in" consent.
It will probably be wise just as a general precaution to also put in additional information about Google Analytics in the Terms of Use or a similar special information page devoted to cookies, and so we plan to do that as well when we finish installing the Silktide solution on our blogs.
Please be advised that we are not recommending the use or installation of this particular plugin solution and expressly disclaim any liability for any solution that any website, blog or other Internet presence takes regarding this EU law based upon our installations or opinions.
When in doubt, consult your attorney.
Crossposted at LawPundit.
See Silktide - Become compliant
And see also Silktide - Definitive guide to the Cookie Law
The advantage of this open source solution is that it is "opt-in" and should be compliant with the various non-uniform implementations of the various European Union Member States, some of which require prior "opt-in" consent.
It will probably be wise just as a general precaution to also put in additional information about Google Analytics in the Terms of Use or a similar special information page devoted to cookies, and so we plan to do that as well when we finish installing the Silktide solution on our blogs.
Please be advised that we are not recommending the use or installation of this particular plugin solution and expressly disclaim any liability for any solution that any website, blog or other Internet presence takes regarding this EU law based upon our installations or opinions.
When in doubt, consult your attorney.
Crossposted at LawPundit.
Monday, May 07, 2012
The Origin of Written Script in Europe : Ancient Signs The Alphabet and the Origins of Writing
The Berlin publisher -- epubli -- of my recently published book,
Ancient Signs The Alphabet and the Origins of Writing,
now has its pages up in English
for those of you who have been considering
getting a print or ebook copy of Ancient Signs.
The English-language pages are now at epubli.com
while the German-language pages are at epubli.de.
Lots of amazing stuff in there about the history of ancient Europe.
Happy reading!
Friday, May 04, 2012
European Court of Justice Holds That Computer Program Functionality Is Not Copyrightable, but Programming Languages and File Formats may be, ECJ, EU, European Union
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that Computer
program functionality not copyrightable but programming languages and
file formats may be protected by the Copyright Directive.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Current Obstacles to Freedom of Movement in the European Union (EU) and their Removal
The European Parliament News online has a piece on Removing obstacles to Europeans' freedom of movement
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