In reviewing the language and concepts being used in the various draft bills and directives circulating in Brussels at present, it is clear that the experts crafting the language are using their understanding of proprietary software to build the protections they clearly intend for Open Source.
The news that the European Commission’s competition directorate (DG COMP) has decided not to conduct a full antitrust investigation into the Alliance for Open Media’s (AOM) licensing policy is to be welcomed.
Europe’s standards bodies have no functional relationships with Open Source charities and do not consult them.
What might happen if the uncertainty persists around who is held responsible under the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)? The global Open Source community is averse to legal risks and generally lacks access to counsel, so it’s very possible offers of source code will simply be withdrawn rather than seeking to resolve the uncertainty.
Software is a cultural artifact, a proxy for the law in the lives of every citizen, a tool for control and for freedom depending on the hand that wields it. It is imperative that all software is open for scrutiny and preserved for posterity.
The European Commission’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) as drafted may harm Open Source, and perhaps all other non-industrial software. A list of most relevant responses.
The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a proposal for a European law that aims to drive the safety and integrity of software of all kinds by extending the “CE” self-attestation mark to software. And it may harm Open Source.
There’s more to Mastodon than just replacing Twitter. ActivityPub has the potential to end the reign of monetized surveillance with a switch to user-owned applications.
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