The Wall Street Journal reports that in its first review of EU economic policy, the OECD said “

[t]he European Union must reduce barriers to the across-border provision of services, make its energy markets more competitive, and aid the integration of retail banking if it is to close the income gap with the U.S. and other top performers.”

Linux-Watch writes that “[f]or the first time in the U.S., a company and software vendor, Monsoon Multimedia, is being taken to court for a GPL violation. Previously, alleged GPL violations have all been settled by letters from the FSF (Free Software Foundation) or other open-source organizations, pointing out the violation.”

According to Internetnews.com, “[t]he latest Gartner estimates forecast worldwide PC shipments will grow 12.3 percent in 2007 and 11.0 percent in 2008. Mobile PCs remain the most popular hardware being sold, with Gartner projecting that notebooks will account for 40 percent of sales this year, or 104 million of the 260 million PC sold in 2007.”

The Financial Times predicts that “[a] transatlantic trade dispute is about to flare up as the US prepares a complaint about European tariffs on high-technology goods such as flat screen monitors and digital decoders. The US is contesting the European Union’s interpretation of a 10-year-old World Trade Organisation agreement governing high-tech products that offers duty-free status to some items. Washington has been recruiting Asian allies in Geneva to file a case against Brussels, diplomatic sources say.”

CNetNews.com has a really interesting article today entitled “Why restraining Microsoft no longer matters.” In the article, CNet Executive Editor Charles Cooper points out that “[g]overnment regulators come and go but Microsoft’s bigger headache these days comes from new technology offerings. To wit, IBM just introduced a beta collection of free software applications to compete against Microsoft’s Office. And Google, which long ago surpassed Microsoft in the sizzle category, keeps adding to its store of free applications. Meanwhile, Yahoo is spending $350 million to buy a Web-based e-mail and collaboration package comparable with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. And that’s just from the well-known companies. What about under-the-radar Internet startups Microsoft’s never heard of? […] Europe’s bureaucrats seek to protect what they believe to be the public’s best interests. By then, however, the terms of the technology race likely will have moved on.”