"Problems" over in the USA

You definitely know something has gone wrong, if you're not allowed to invite friends to watch a sports event. Is that the world we live in?

Is the EU misunderstood?

Although I usuall agree with techdirt, even like its analysis of the cultural markets, I don't actually understand its bias pro Microsoft.

The newest entry about Microsoft antitrust issues in the EU is a prime example:

After a years long fight concerning antitrust charges in Europe, Microsoft finally gave in and agreed to pay up.

"gave in" is the right expression - gave in, after its appeal got grounded.

So, now the matter is over with, right? No, of course not. EU regulators are back at it, telling Microsoft that the company is probably violating antitrust laws by bundling Microsoft Internet Explorer with Windows

If you get a speeding ticket - does that cover for littering, too? No, of course not. The previous action did not cover browser bundling (contrary to the US action). As a browser competitor complained, this second action covers that different issue.

This seems like an odd issue to bring up now as there is increasing competition in the browser market.

Even if it should be no issue now - the claim was filed for behaviour in the past. Furthermore, there is no decision yet. There is still an investigation going on which may result in a dismissal.

And finally:

It seems to confirm the initial opinion that many had of the original
antitrust lawsuit in the EU against Microsoft. It's more about a simple
dislike for Microsoft than any actual antitrust violation.

A conclusion which is not founded in the facts presented above...

"Pirates are underserved customers"

Finally, even at big industry meetings, some see reason - here it it's Valve's Jason Holtman. It's basic economics, actually: Where there's demand, there is supply. Whether that supply is "legal" or "illegal" does not really matter - economics beat laws ;)

"friendly" DRM? Better than non-encumbered content? (Update 2009-01-16)

More and more money is dumped into the DRM drain... One has to wonder how a whole industry can be so misguided - then again, why should banks have a monopoly for bad ideas ;)

But why is it, that educated people are that immune against realities:

• No DRM, no restriction
• any DRM, restriction; and - if it's not a purely passive watermarking - less value

2009-01-16: And on the heels another Big Bad Idea (tm)... Sandisk wants to link flash memory to SIMs. Anyone see why such models will not be used?

How NOT to handle payments

Whatever they think, ClickAndBuy - at least in Switzerland - is a prime example of how not to handle payments!

For a simple purchase by credit card (below 30USD) I have to create a separate account with the payment platform! What for?!

Opening the account is a multi-page huge form process... Upon submitting, an error an further fields appear from nowhere. Of course, the mandatory "yes, I want you to spam me" checkbox is checked on each iteration!

And finally, they request my mobile number! No payment without verification of my mobile phone?! WTF?! I don't give my mobile phone number to an anonymous corporation!

As I cannot buy my specific purchase in a different shop, I call them and have a nice 15 min chat to finally get my payment through (no, I didn't call from my mobile phone).

From a customer's view, this payment platform is inacceptable.

Hail XSL(T)/XSD

Sometimes I just have to wonder what implementors think of XML data exchange:

<MotherTongue1>German</MotherTongue1>
<MotherTongue1Id>2001</MotherTongue1Id>
<MotherTongue2>German</MotherTongue2>
<MotherTongue2Id>2001</MotherTongue2Id>

Upon clarification, no hierarchy should be implied... Attributes seem to have been lost in wonderland. And oh, the id is an index into a proprietary table of languages, some misspelled, some invalid, some multiple times. ISO 639 anyone?

Want to contact a person described in the XML file? Well, there are

<EmailExternal>
<EmailExternal2>
<EmergencyEmail>
[and more]

.. all scattered around in different parts of the file, of course.

At least I have a properly designed and documented schema?! Oh wait, all it does is assign base datatypes to those fields - and then incorrectly. Birth dates are xsl:dateTimes as xsl:date somehow is "not available", other dates are xsl:strings (diversly formatted)... oh and:

<s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" name="Gender" type="s:string"/>

means "m" or "w" (female, german: weiblich), of course...

Opening up

Rather than "only" consuming my preferred blogs and wondering where bad policy will lead us, I just decided to summarize some thoughts. Maybe this blog will live... maybe it will die.