Standards and the presumption of conformity
Access to the law includes access to the harmonized standards it predicates. But is it right that those standards can include royalty-due patents (SEPs)?
Author Archives: Simon Phipps
Jordan Maris joins OSI
EU Open Source veteran joins OSI to advocate, educate, support and lead for the Open Source community.
CRA standards request draft published
The European Commission recently published a public draft of the standards request associated with the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). For those who depend on incorporating or creating Open Source software, there is an encouraging new development found here. For the first time in a European standards request, there is an express requirement to respect the needs of Open Source developers and users.
Openly Shared: CRA’s Open goes beyond the OSD
The definition of “open source” in the most recent version (article 2(48)) of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) goes beyond the Open Source Definition (OSD) managed by OSI.
The European regulators listened to the Open Source communities!
Open Source communities defended developers and foundations against risks posed by the CRA to Open Source development, and their voices were heard. Workshops being offered at FOSDEM offer a chance for others to participate moving forward.
Fixing a gap in the SEP regulation
In OSI’s feedback to the European Commission’s proposed Standard Essential Patent (SEP) Regulation (SEP-R), OSI recommended that the legislation add a waiting period for patent claims registered under the regulation…
Diverse Open Source uses highlight need for precision in Cyber Resilience Act
The final legislative phase of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is starting and the drafts still have issues arising from framing by the Commission or Parliament. Read OSI’s recommendations to frame the trialogue.
Modern EU policies need the voices of the fourth sector
The European Commission needs to extend its consultations, Expert Groups and other work to include and consider the fourth sector.
Regulatory language cannot be the same for all software
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.
Why open video is vital 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.
Another issue with the Cyber Resilience Act: European standards bodies are inaccessible to Open Source projects
Europe’s standards bodies have no functional relationships with Open Source charities and do not consult them.
The Cyber Resilience Act introduces uncertainty and risk leaving Open Source projects confused
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.