It should not come as a surprise that open source projects would act collaboratively. But it’s somewhat of a first, in my understanding, that Open Source Matters, Inc. (Joomla), Typo3, WordPress, and the Drupal Association have issued a joint letter to the legislators of the European Union raising concerns with the proposed Cyber Resilience Act. And the concerns raised by our four organizations, whose communities collectively serve over 50% of the European websites, are significant enough to warrant such a first.
The impact of the regulation as proposed would undermine effective software practices in its ban on “unfinished software”, chill the contributions of tens of thousands of developers who make free contributions to open source software due to an expansive definition of “commercial activity”, and would impose one-size fits all compliance costs likely causing development to gravitate to large, for-profit firms that can absorb the costs.
While the rule’s impact would be extremely negative, the opportunity we have before us is positive. This rule provides an opportunity for open source communities across Europe (and the globe!) to explain the unique role that FOSS plays in the software that underpins much of the web and to develop a model for how regulation should be applied to it. It is an opportunity for our communities to learn how to best work together in making this case, as the four signatories on this letter have begun to do. Finally, it’s an opportunity to educate legislators and policy-makers as to the shared values that open source communities have with the European Union.
The Drupal Association engaged in this issue because we recognized that the Cyber Resilience Act is the current issue at hand, but not the only one. The European Union’s parliament is considering proposed changes to the Product Liability Directive this Fall that could impose a strict liability standard. And beyond that lies A.I. and patent rules.
So we embrace this opportunity to collaborate with Joomla, Typo3, WordPress, and hopefully other open source initiatives to credential FOSS’ role in the E.U. regulatory landscape. As experts in the field, we embrace the responsibility to educate and provide support for our online ecosystem. We also look forward to engaging with and serving our Drupal community members in Europe.