The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has initiated the process for revising the GPL licence (The GNU GPL is the most widely used Open Source Software license worldwide: Almost three quarters of all Open Source Software programs are distributed under this license. Since the GPL's last revision more than 15 years ago, software development and the business of distributing software have changed dramatically. Research firm Gartner recently predicted that by 2010 more than 75 percent of IT organizations will have formal acquisition and management strategies dealing with Open Source Software. As a result, business enterprises, as well as individual users and developers, will have an interest in the content of the new license). This process will start with an Initial Conference and release of first public draft on 16-17 January 2006 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will lead to a new Version 3 of the licence by March 2007. If you want to get further information or be involved in the process, please go to: http://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3launch.

The European Commission has published an evaluation of the protection EU law gives to databases. EU law protects databases by copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Other databases, especially those that are compilations of information or commonplace data, such as telephone directories, music charts or football match listings, may benefit from a new form of protection introduced by the 1996 Database Directive. This protection is known as the 'sui generis' database right, i.e. a specific property right for databases that is unrelated to other forms of protection such as copyright. The evaluation focuses on whether the introduction of this right led to an increase in the European database industry's rate of growth and in database production. It also looks at whether the scope of the right targets those areas where Europe needs to encourage innovation. Stakeholders are invited to comment on the evaluation by 12 March 2006.

A European company, Daimler-Chrysler, invests more in research and development than any company in the world. This is one of the findings of the Second EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, compiled and presented by the European Commission. The Scoreboard, an analysis of industrial R&D investment trends based on corporate figures, shows that R&D investment among the top 700 EU companies grew slightly in the year to 1 August 2005 contrasting with the previous year, when spending went down. Nonetheless a wide investment gap remains in comparison with the top 700 companies outside the EU. The scoreboard shows EU companies are less present in industrial sectors which invest more than 5% of their sales in R&D, including sectors with the fastest growing R&D. At the same time, a survey of EU companies in last year’s Scoreboard shows that they are positive about future R&D investment, expecting growth of about 6% per year and they have a clear preference for carrying out their research within Europe, in their home countries. Outside the EU, companies target the US, China and India as R&D investment locations.

The ".eu" top-level domain, which enables businesses, public bodies and citizens to choose a pan-European Internet name for their web sites and e-mail addresses, opened for business on 7 December 2005. The .eu top level domain is managed and operated by a private, non-profit Registry (EURid) selected by the Commission following an open call. EURid will register applications for the registration of domain names through a large net of accredited Registrars. This morning, EURid opened its systems to receive applications for .eu domain names. Some 800 Registrars in 25 countries are sending in the applications they received from numerous candidate domain name holders all across the EU. Nearly 100,000 applications were received in the 3 hours following the official launch.

A major conference organized by the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) project, coordinated by CERN and co-funded by the European Commission, ended today with the announcement that the EGEE infrastructure had surpassed 2 million computing jobs, or the equivalent of over 1000 years of processing on a single PC. "Europe's strategic investments in Grids and in the GEANT network infrastructure are certainly already paying dividends," commented Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, during a visit to CERN today.

In the EU25, 45% of individuals aged from 16 to 74 who used the internet obtained information from public authorities' websites during the first quarter of 2004. At the beginning of 2004, 51% of enterprises with internet access obtained information from public authorities' websites.

The Commission has presented a three year programme to simplify the existing thousands of pages of EU legislation (“acquis”) adopted since 1957. Following a broad consultation of Member States and stakeholders, the Commission proposes to repeal, codify, recast or modify 250 basic legislations and 1,250 related legal acts in the next three years. The programme will be regularly updated. It kicks off with the most heavily regulated sectors, such as cars, waste and construction.

Unisys and RAND Europe are carrying out a pan-European survey as part of the European Commission funded study on “Risk Preparedness in Business in the field of Network and Information Security” to gauge the ability of European firms to handle security threats, such as those posed by viruses, spyware, hackers and crackers to the security of their electronic communications tools and networks. This survey is part of the Commission’s eEurope 2005 Action Plan to develop a dynamic environment for e-business through widespread availability of broadband access at competitive prices and a secure information infrastructure.

The European Commission adopted on 12 October a recommendation on the management of online rights in musical works. The recommendation puts forward measures for improving the EU-wide licensing of copyright for online services. Improvements are necessary because new Internet-based services such as webcasting or on on-demand music downloads need a license that covers their activities throughout the EU. The absence of EU-wide copyright licenses has been one factor that has made it difficult for new Internet-based music services to develop their full potential.

Commission's communication on a new integrated industrial policy identifies a number of new political sector-specific initiatives. To ensure that public policy provides a supportive environment for the competitiveness of an evolving ICT sector, a taskforce with stakeholders’ representatives on ICT Competitiveness will be set up. Adding to the initiatives the Commission is undertaking under i2010, it will identify key obstacles to competitiveness and possible policy responses, for example in terms of better regulation, skills, IPR, and standardization.

Today Eurid has announced that its first phase of registrations for the new Top Level web Domain .eu will begin on 07 December 2005. This marks the start of a 4-month “sunrise” period during which only the holders of existing trademarks or other prior rights may register. Registrations for .eu will be fully open to the public from the beginning of April 2006.

A public consultation on how to enhance the competitiveness of the publishing sector in the EU’s increasingly digital economy was launched by the European Commission on 20 September. Replies to this consultation, which are expected by mid-November 2005, should help EU policy makers to better understand the needs and challenges of Europe’s publishing industry. Already this Friday, chief editors from eight European newspapers and magazines from Austria, Denmark, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK will meet in Brussels at the invitation of Commissioner Reding to brainstorm how the written press in Europe is addressing the challenges and opportunities arising from online publishing, digitisation and increased competition in the advertising markets. The results of the consultation will be presented at a publishers’ summit on 6 December in Brussels.

The new Commission report on the role of mini-companies

From Saturday 13 August, all EU citizens should be able to bring their electrical and electronic waste free of charge to shops on a 1:1 basis when they purchase a new product. In addition there should be central collection points for e-waste in all EU Member States. These new facilities for consumers are a result of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Its goal is to ensure that e-waste, which often contains hazardous substances, is not simply thrown away, but is collected, recycled and reused, with the remaining waste being properly treated. E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream and poses particular problems in the municipal waste stream. Hazardous substances may be released through incineration and landfilling. The Directive also requires that from Saturday on, all e-products put on the market are marked with a crossed-out bin so that consumers know that they should not simply throw them away. It also obliges Member States to make sure that producers have set up financing systems to pay for the collection, treatment, recovery and elimination of electro-scrap.

A public consultation on the practical implementation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system for the .eu Top Level Domain (TLD) is now open until 7thSeptember. All interested parties are invited to participate. This is one of the last procedural steps before the sunrise period starts. On June 16, another important milestone towards implementation of ".eu" was reached with the opening of the Registrars accreditation process by the Registry Eurid (see news ). The European Commission remains hopeful that the new .eu Top Level Domain can “open for business” in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Wireless access to the Internet will become faster and more widespread thanks to a decision adopted by the Commission today. This decision makes available a substantial amount of radio spectrum throughout the European Union for radio local area networks (RLANs) – commonly known as “Wi-Fi” –, used to provide access on the move to the Internet and private networks. Market analysts suggest an explosion of WiFi users over the next 3 years.

The European Commission has completed today its 200th assessment of measures proposed by national regulators to improve competition in the electronic communications markets. In the 200th case the Commission has endorsed measures proposed by the Swedish national regulatory authority to increase competition on the leased lines market. Since the entry into force of the regulatory framework for electronic communication services in July 2003, Member States must ensure effective competition in their national electronic communications markets and notify their analyses and proposed regulatory measures to the Commission for assessment. The Commission’s role in this procedure is to ensure consistency of the EU rules throughout the Single Market.

A public consultation on policy measures needed to bring high-speed internet access to Europe’s under-served areas was opened by the European Commission today. Stakeholders, EU Member States and local/regional authorities are invited to contribute their views on the serious broadband challenge now facing Europe, as set out in a Commission staff working paper entitled “Broadband access and public support in under-served areas”. High-speed and secure broadband networks are vital to the Commission’s “i2010” strategy for boosting growth and jobs in the digital economy.

Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, together with Vladimir Spidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, yesterday presented a Communication on the Community Strategic Guidelines on economic, social and territorial cohesion. The new Guidelines will establish priorities for the next generation of cohesion policy programmes, helping Member States to focus on key areas for growth and employment. The Commission will propose the Guidelines for formal adoption by Council and European Parliament, once the legal regulations underpinning the new cohesion policy have been adopted. Meanwhile, a public consultation will help to shape the final version.

Small and medium-sized enterprises often face problems in selling technologies or know-how abroad, or are unable to source their technology needs in their own countries. To ensure that the huge innovation potential of the EU’s 25 million SMEs is fully exploited, a network of Innovation Relay Centres (IRC) was created in 1995 to stimulate transnational transfer of innovative technologies and to promote technology partnerships. At its annual meeting held in Brussels from 27- 29 June 2005, the IRC network gathered European and regional stakeholders to discuss new methods and objectives for future innovation support – and celebrated 10 years of successful operations bringing innovative companies together to make innovation a business reality.