Been thinking a bit about the problems technology and entertainment is facing with pending legislation and big ugly mice. The KaZaA news shows that european lawmakers may view things a bit differently than in the US.
Earlier this year Brussels (where the european parliment sits) started making noise about patents. Good noise for a change! Ofcourse companies like Philips will have to adhere to whatever their US customers ask them to build, but they have a history of manufacturing multiple versions of their warez to comply with different regional needs. Look at TV. the states still uses NTSC as their standard, which is technically inferior to the European PAL system. Jokingly in the tv bizz we call it Never The Same Color. The global cellphone standard is GSM, again, the states uses primarily incompatible technology. Hey, what about that 110 volt powergrid! Most modern grids run 220 volts. Granted, you fry faster when you drop your toaster in your european sized bathtub... Obviously it is not a problem for the big manufacturers to make devices that specifically comply with US legislation. A great analogy is the emissions standards for automobiles. Every manufacturer in the world installs horse-power crippling gear on their US bound vehicles. When I lived in NY I was the envy of all because we had a porsche 911 from europe....faster than a speeding bagel I tell you.
So we may see this play out locally in America, while europe takes a slower pace to [hopefully] examine all sides of the story before rushing to any legislation. Y'all are welcome in Amsterdam, home of Coffeeshops, Red Lights and kaZaA.
6:01:23 PM 
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