Veni | Вени

Bulgarian “Trud” daily publishes today an editorial, under the headline “USA points us our new rulers“. And continues…

“…The leaders of the SDS* Plamen Yurukov and of GERB* Tsvetan Tsvetanov are on their way to the USA, invited by the State Department… Nothing strange here. The Big Overseas Brother sees in GERB and SDS the future rulers of Bulgaria. [But because the two parties are not in good relations] the task of Washington is concrete – to persuade them, that if they are together, there is no way to avoid the center-right government in Bulgaria. This is clear not only in the polls today, but is being hinted by observers, and by diplomats… And there’s something strange in this visit – the lack of representatives from DSB* in this delegation. So, not only the majority of the Bulgarians, but also the Americans don’t count Ivan Kostov in their future plans.”

What actually happens in the media in Bulgaria? I can understand that they want to create news, but there is no news in the invitation by the State Department to leaders of political parties to visit the US. And certainly it is not a sign that the US sees in these two parties the “future rulers of Bulgaria”. Even more – if they were to see that, then it is even worse for these same “future rulers” to show that they go to Washington well in advance of next year elections – as if to get instructions? To say also that the future government of Bulgaria will be a center-right one shows, because “the polls say so” (they don’t), or because “observers hint so” (some of them do – people who are close to these same three parties), or because “diplomats also say it” (if they judge their seeings on articles like this one, no wonder they would say so), is not quite correct for an editorial.
I’d go one step further – to put a headline that the USA tells us who are the next rulers of the country shows complete lack of self respect. And if you don’t have self respect, you can’t expect anyone to respect you.
Naming the US “the Big brother” has nothing to do with George Orwell’s 1984, but with the fact that the communists were calling the USSR “the Big Brother”, and before that, the Russians were called “bratushki” (brothers). In other words – Bulgarian media today show they lack the big brother, someone to “take care” of Bulgaria. I only hope that there will be some politicians in my country to understand the absurdity of such a thought.

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SDS, GERB, DSB – political parties in Bulgaria

Главният прокурор съобщава:

След проучване и анализ на получени от Министерство на отбраната материали и след извършени проверки в Софийска военноокръжна прокуратура са образувани три досъдебни производства:…
2. Срещу подполковник ДИМИТЪР ВАТРАЛЕВ – зам. началник Направление „Финанси” при Главен щаб на Сухопътни войски, за престъпление по чл. 387, ал. 3, вр. ал. 1 от НК.
Разследването се води за събиране на доказателства за превишаване на власт при сключване на договори за компютърни конфигурации в резултат на което са настъпили щети за Министерство на отбраната в размер на около 35 000 лева.

Ето какво пише в Наказателния кодекс по споменатите текстове:

Раздел ІІІ, Длъжностни престъпления
Чл. 387. (1) Който злоупотреби с властта или със служебното си положение, не изпълни задълженията си по служба или превиши властта си и от това произлязат вредни последици, се наказва с лишаване от свобода до три години.
…
(3) (Нова – ДВ, бр. 89 от 1986 г.) Ако деянието по предходните алинеи е извършено с цел деецът да набави за себе си или за другиго имотна облага или да причини другиму вреда, наказанието е: лишаване от свобода от една до пет години по ал. 1, от три до осем години по ал. 2, а в особено тежки случаи – от три до десет години, като съдът постановява и лишаване от право по чл. 37, ал. 1, точка 6 .

Интересно: кога ще има досъдебно производство срещу виновните длъжностни лица в Министерството на държавната администрация и административната реформа (МДААР) за корупционните сделки с ЦАПК “Прогрес” (уж с “Майкрософт”), от които настъпиха значително по-големи щети от посочените по-горе 35,000 лв?

This below was written 10 years ago. It was done when the then .bg ccTLD decided to start charging for registration of domain names in the .bg space.

Digital Systems Slavov & Co – Varna, which due to historic reasons is the Top Level Domain Administrator (TLDA) in the .bg domain, with no prior warning has introduced post factum from January 1st, 1998, tax for registration of new domains in .bg, and an annual fee for maintaining them in the Internet. We are talking about names like president.bg, web.bg, pari.bg, acad.bg, isoc.bg, digsys.bg and all the rest, which are being published daily in tens of mass media across the country and worldwide.

The names in the .bg domain are national symbol. They also form the area of the Bulgarian informational resources in the Internet and can not be used as commercial object from one or another private or state-owned company without the possibility of public control.

We, the undersigned Internet users with registered domain names in .bg categorically PROTEST against this monopolist attitude!

We are warning all the Internet users that by this fact, Digital Systems are forcing us to register the names not in the .bg domain, but in .com, .net, etc., thus losing our national identity. This will bring loses and missed chances for all the Internet users in Bulgaria.

Misusing their monopolist situation, Digital Systems enforce a tax, which not only is too high, but is also not in accordance with the Protecting the Competition Lawљ and the good habits. In return for these high taxes, Digital Systems doesn’t offer a contract, neither take responsibilities or obligations.

We propose:
Read more…

Bulgarian blogger Elenko Elenkov writes that the Sofia City Court started the case, which he filed against the 24 hours daily (a WAZ newspaper) for using a picture, made by Elenko, without following the license, which he is using on his site (Creative Commons – by-sa).
On June 6 2007, Elenko made this picture, showing a license plate with 6 digits “8″.
On September 20, 2007 “24 hours” published the same picture on their cover page, without mentioning the author, or using the same license (CC).
Four days later the newspaper acknowledged that Elenko is the author of the picture, with a small text “correction”.
Two days after that, Elenko sent a notary letter, asking them for a payment of his work.
The newspaper decided not to pay. Elenko got a lawyer, and has received also advise from CC-Bulgaria experts Peio Popov and Svetozara Petkova*, and filed a case.

During the first hearing yesterday, May 27, 2008, “24 hours” daily admitted in the court room that Elenko is the author of the picture and that they have breached his copy rights, and offered compensation for the publication.
But they didn’t offer compensation for the moral damages, and there will be a second hearing on November 11, 2008, where Elenko will bring a witness to describe how he felt when his picture was stolen by the newspaper, so that the court can determine the right amount of money to be paid to Elenko as a compensation.

This is a good sign about the Bulgarian legal system, and about Creative Commons users in the country!

update: There was an interview between the legal counsel of WAZ in Bulgaria and Elenko tonight, on re:tv, and as it turned out, the argument now is not about the copyright, but about the price which the newspaper should pay. The author is asking for Euro 500, but “24 daily” is willing to give him only Euro 50. This small amount is really amazing, given the fact that they have 100,000 copies circulation (second biggest in Bulgaria). The “24 hours” acknowledged the license, although the counsel attempted in the live interview to say that before the case, Elenko’s site was with restricted copyright. This is not true, as it has been licensed under CC since 2003.

Update-2 (June 02,2008):
I got a copy of the case, provided kindly with the agreement of Mr. Elenkov. Here are some interesting details from there:
The picture was published twice – on the cover page, and on page 3. As an author on page 3 was mentioned “Internet”.
On page 39 of the newspaper it states “The information published in the 24 hours, is by the reporters of the newspapers, bulletins of the BTA, Associated Press and Reuters. Reprinting of texts or pictures without the written agreement of the publishers is forbidden”
The correction published on Sept. 24 was under the headline, “pictures from the Internet forums also have an author”, and text that the picture was published “in one of the Internet forums”, and the author was Elenko Elenkov.
The lawyer has based his case on the existing Copyright Law of Bulgaria, and does not mention Creative Commons by name. He did something smarter – he claims, “the conditions, which I’ve put in order for someone to use my work, have not been met by the defendant”. The conditions on his site have been CC since 2003.
Elenko claims that the correction published by the newspaper is impairing his image, rather than admitting him as the author.

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* They contributed quite well to the localization of the CC in Bulgaria.

The Macedonian daily Dnevnik (not related to the Bulgarian daily with the same name) writes the following:

Бугарите колку сакаат може да ја оспоруваат засебноста на македонскиот народ, дури и во своите вицови – една верзија на темата “Најкус бугарски виц” е токму “Македонски народ”. Но, фактот дека постои посебна рубрика на вицови за Македонци во бугарскиот фолклор го докажува токму спротивното – постоењето засебен македонски идентитет културно различен од бугарскиот. Парадоксално, ама токму бугарските вицови во кои најмногу се понижуваат и исмеваат Македонците се антрополошко сведоштво во прилог на тезата дека Македонците и Бугарите на културен план се два различни света. Впрочем, како што сведочи и овој бугарски парадокс што го прочитав на еден интернет-форум: “Сите луѓе настанале од мајмуните, а само Македонците од Бугарите”

Here’s a translation of this in English:

The Bulgarians may argue about the existence of the Macedonian people, even in their jokes – one of the versions of “the shortest Bulgarian joke” is exactly the “Macedonian people”. But the fact that there’s a separate set of jokes about Macedonians in the Bulgarian folklore proves exactly the opposite – there is a separate Macedonian identity, culturally different from the Bulgarian. The paradox is that exactly the Bulgarian jokes, which laugh at the Macedonians are anthropological proof that the Macedonians and the Bulgarians are two different cultural worlds. There’s an example of this Bulgarian paradox, which I read at an Internet forum, “All people come from the monkeys, only the Macedonians – from the Bulgarians”.

And here’s an explanation:
The writer, Zharko Trajanoski, obviously is not aware of the Bulgarian folklore, or else he would have known that there is no section “jokes about Macedonians”, but there are sections “jokes about people from Gabrovo”, “jokes about people from Plovdiv”, and of course, the famous “jokes about Shopi”. Which doesn’t mean there are separate nations of the Shopi, plovdivchani or gabrovtsi.
Plus, there are far worse and harsh jokes about the Shopi than about the Macedonians in the Bulgarian folklore.
But the fact that the Macedonian “Dnevnik” would publish a whole article on that (there are more examples to show that the Greeks are obssesed with the Macedonians, etc.) shows that indeed the Macedonians are having a problem with their identity, a problem that lasts now for nearly 20 years.

As for the shortest Bulgarian joke, it is not translatable in English, but it is (with the right pronunciation) a talk between two people:
- A, be!
- A, de?

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disclosure: I am born in Skopie. My Grandfather is one of the creators of the Macedonian alphabet, and has published the first book in Macedonian, in 1938.

Mediapool described a recent visit of the Prime Minister to the Architects University. According to them he had lunch in the cafeteria of the University.

According to Mediapool he had for lunch steak with potatoes, soup of boiled veal, shopska salad and yoghurt with strawberries.

Vsekiden reported about the same event. Here is what the menu of the prime minister was, according to them:

chicken soup, “juicy” steak with mashed potatoes and tomatoes, and a salad of tomatoes with onion. He also had white pita bread and yoghurt with fruits.

I don’t even have to comment on these differences, and make any in-depth dissection, as they speak for themselves.

Bulgarian daily “Dnevnik” published an article, “The sorry of the chief prosecutor“.

It says, among other things,

“The Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev expressed his regrets for the fact that about 200,000 cases have become void. Each prosecutor has to deal with 200 cases, and the experts on these cases are not motivated to work on them…. If these 200,000 cases were brought to justice, Bulgaria would have been a totally different country, and not in the last place of all European surveys for standard of living. The people, who live in Bulgaria, would have been different, including the politicians… It is true that claims lost by limitations of these 200,000 cases is not fault of the current Chief Prosecutor, and nobody says he’s to be blamed. But to express his regrets only is not enough. It is up to him, if he really wants it, not to leave this issue like that…”

Let us make a dissection of what the newspaper actually says?
The fact is that the Chief Prosecutor announced there are 200,000 cases, which have become void. But the interpretation is that Bulgaria would have been a totally different country.
That, for me, is missing what the point. Exactly because Bulgaria is the country it is, there are 200,000 cases, which have expired, not the other way around.
And also – to believe that the Chief Prosecutor can somehow solve these cases – this is not only naive, but even dangerous, when they put it on paper. They make the people believe that one man can solve all problems.

Microsoft has published a press-release, announcing they will provide MS Office users with the option of saving documents in open document format (ODF):

With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) scheduled for the first half of 2009, the list will grow to include support for XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1.
When using SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents into the XPS and PDF fixed formats from directly within the application without having to install any other code. It will also allow customers to set ODF as the default file format for Office 2007. To also provide ODF support for users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office (Office XP and Office 2003), Microsoft will continue to collaborate with the open source community in the ongoing development of the Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net.

and more:

Microsoft will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee working on the next version of ODF and will take part in the ISO/IEC working group being formed to work on ODF maintenance.

ODF Alliance called the announcement in a special press release, “Because Microsoft has a history of broken promises, no one should celebrate this news until we see what is actually done and how quickly it is put in place.”

This is quite a useful document. Please, read, share. The letter is initially signed by several well-known people, among them some that I know. You can see the actual Hague declaration with all the signatures until now, and sign it on your own here.

Industry has always depended on standards and traditional industries have built their standards as part of a slow, controlled, top-down approach to innovation. Industrial-age standards are often heavily patented, complex, and large. They can be expensive to implement and therefore are implementable only for large established firms.

But almost forty years ago, Steve Crocker and his team wrote RFC001 and launched the networks that built the Internet using a different model based on older human values of sharing and cooperation. His vision, and that of other Internet pioneers, was of a digital world built on simple, interoperable standards, accessible at zero cost to even the smallest teams. Largely, their dream is coming true. Today we’re used to an Internet of open software, open content, and open development.

While most agree, not everyone likes it. In the telecoms, entertainment, and software industries we see the destruction of legacy vendors and their replacement by new Internet communities. And many of the old industrial businesses, instead of adapting, are fighting back. The fight is intensifying because the stakes are growing. Free and open source software, open content, and open communities are together worth trillions of dollars. The key to controlling these rich ecosystems is to control the digital standards they depend on.

The outcome of this conflict will define our digital future. At one extreme, Steve Crocker’s vision comes true, and the future is built on free and open digital standards. And at the other extreme, the legacy telecoms, entertainment and software vendors capture the world’s digital standards by controlling the standardization processes and by using software patents.

Imagine the world if RFC001 was owned by a consortium of telecoms firms. Imagine if only those firms, and their approved partners, could develop Internet technologies. Imagine if every RFC was protected by dozens of patents, so that sending a single email or downloading a web page meant paying license fees. Imagine paying for each click. Look at your mobile phone bill and you see how close this reality is.

We are a group of open standards developers, experts, and advocates. We believe that fair participation in a free market is a basic human right. We want all digital standards, especially those that make the Internet work, to be free and open and we intend to lead the charge to prevent the capture of digital standards by the legacy vendors.

In September 2007 together with others we set up the Digital Standards Organization, Digistan.org, or simply “Digistan”. We are building a new not-for-profit world-wide grass roots organization to defend and promote open digital standards, and we want you to join us. Digistan consists of volunteer workgroups around the world. We organize with email lists and wikis. We focus on standards for standards, on government policies, on tools for open standards teams.

On 21 May 2008 we’ll be in the Hague, Netherlands, to sign the Hague Declaration. This document explains why democratic governments are obliged, by international law, and in most cases their own constitutions, to only use free and open standards when they buy IT, in e-government, and internally. You can sign this declaration today on http://www.digistan.org/hague-declaration:en.

There are many groups that work for free and open digital standards. Today, it’s time for these groups to come together. If you lead a group that works on free and open digital standards, email us at contact@digistan.org. Digistan is your voice, and Digistan workgroups around the world are your friends.

Next April 7 2009 will celebrate the 40th birthday of the Internet. In forty more years, will the Internet still be a free economy in which everyone can participate, or will it have been locked down by legacy vendors and proprietary standards?

The letter is signed by Alberto Barrionuevo, President, FFII; Alexandra Combes, ESOMA, President FFII France; Stefan Gustavson, Benjamin Henrion, ESOMA, FFII and AEL; Pieter Hintjens, ESOMA, iMatix, past President FFII; Jan Husar, SKOSI; Bob Jolliffe, FTISA (Freedom to Innovate South Africa); Michiel Leenaars, NLnet foundation; René Mages, board member – FFII / FFII France; Wladek Majewski, Coalition for Open Standards; Tristan Nitot, co-founder of Mozilla Europe and OpenWeb.eu.org; Steve Pepper, Ontopedia; Nicolas Pettiaux, Vice President, APRIL; Chris Puttick, Oxford Archaeology; André Rebentisch, Openstandards.de; Charles-H. Schulz, Ars Aperta and ESOMA; Mark Taylor, Open Source Consortium; Andy Updegrove; Robert Weir, An Antic Disposition.

I am happy to know some of these great people and real fighters!

I just e-mailed Steve Crocker, who hasn’t seen the letter before. His response:

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 5:01 PM, Steve Crocker wrote:

My goodness! Thanks for sharing.

Steve

Ивайло Калфин е писал в блога си как се вижда България отвън – в международната общност.

Да, така е. Сред другите страни България изглежда точно така, както е описана от външния ни министър (цитирам го без притеснения – макар и да няма на сайта си (все още) знакът на Creative Commons, сигурен съм, че това е пропуск на администраторите на сайта, а не негов и този пропуск ще бъде поправен скоро):

Страната ни не изглежда съставена от черни списъци, от кървави писма, от провалени проекти, от дълбока корупция и от черно песимистично бъдеще, а е активен член на международната общност и авторитетен партньор. Това трудно мога да обясня на черногледците, които ще запитат какво толкова търсим на среща ЕС-Латинска Америка. Те ще попитат какво ни влиза това в работата. Радвам се, че има и много други, които знаят, че един партньор е уважаван, когато проявява грижа и за общите интереси, не само към собствените. Между другото собствените са част от общите. Или обратното. Във всеки случай, ако спрем да се самоунижаваме, можем да разберем, че проблемите, които решаваме в отношенията ни с ЕС са нормални – някои хора и институции дълго си мислеха, че можем да заблуждаваме и че правилата на ЕС са хубави, но ние можем и да не ги спазваме. Сега всичко идва на мястото си. Това е и част от реалната интеграция на България в ЕС и от възприемането на европейските ценности и стандарти. Така че – интеграцията продължава, но вече е необратима.

Ивайло Калфин се спира на два различни момента – от една страна как изглежда България, от друга – че трябва да спазваме правилата.

Може би е добре това да се казва по-често, за да почнат да го възприемат хората и на ниските етажи. Защото близо 15 години България бе неуправляема територия, в която се въртяха далавери, фалираха се банки, нароиха се финансови фараони, продаваха се и се купуваха (под масата, разбира се) активи, пасиви, футболни мачове, конкурси, търгове… Но същевременно се появиха и нормални неща – бели фирми, европейски магазини, качествени услуги, нови производства.

Но най-главното сякаш се променя най-трудно: мисленето на хората. А и обществото ни – няма какво да се лъжем – все още е пасивно, все още не е гражданско. Има някои проблясъци – личният ми опит е свързан със знаковите дела срещу държавата на “Интернет общество – България” през 1999 г. за отмяна лицензирането на Интернет операторите и успехът ни с приватизацията на БТК, която бе забавена с няколко месеца и от това държавата ни получи 50 млн. евро повече – дивидентът за годината, който иначе щеше да отиде в подставените лица от виенското “Вива венчърс” – ООД. Чели сме за адв. Михаил Екимджиев, който също се опитва да дава пример за създаване на гражданското общество с дела срещу държавата; наскоро и една онкоболна осъди държавата да й заплати сериозно обезщетение заради спрения достъп до лекарства – това са все примери, че има искрици.
За съжаление все още го няма огънят, все още обществото ни търпи хомота на корумпирани чиновници.
Все още прокурорите ни не могат да насмогнат на делата, а ненаказаните престъпления имат двойно (лошо) значение: престъпниците стават все по-нагли, а хората стават все по-уязвими.

Ето с това трябва да се преборим всички – и у нас, и в чужбина. Да има общество, което да е нетърпимо към недъзите и проблемите. Дали ще стане – не знам, но искам да се случи.