"After their failure to introduce software patents in Europe directly through two directives, then through the community patent and then finally through the «European Patent Litigation Agreement» (EPLA), the European Commission has come up with a new way to legalize software patents: the «United Patent Litigation System» (UPLS)..."

THE latest Microsoft Office crime happens to have earned Microsoft a conviction, unlike so many OOXML crimes that the European Commission has not yet addressed. Justice is slow, but sometimes it eventually arrives. There continues to be a lot of coverage of this all over the Web. The coverage which comes from ITWire calls it "price-fixing" and "collusion".

Free Software Foundation Europe today announces that it will support the European Commission's antitrust investigation against Microsoft and to this effect it has formally requested to be admitted as an interested third party.

The European Commission comments about the ACTA whilst things continue to escalate

It's not just European government that's opting for open source. Today the NSA (the super-secret spy agency in the US) have announced they are joining in with OpenSolaris. Barton has an interview that explores this more. I think we'll see more and more government engagement as the adoption-led market takes hold.

Using Free software from open source communities makes perfect sense for governments, and not just for the obvious reasons of up-front savings on license fees.

The European Commission will propose in the next few days to buy more of its computer software from open-source developers, a commission spokeswoman said Wednesday.

"...The complaint describes how Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards..."