Open Source Bodies Say to EU that Cyber Resilience Act Could Have 'Chilling Effect' on Software

upstart writes:

The proposed legislation also poses 'an unnecessary economic and technological risk to the EU':

More than a dozen open source industry bodies have published an open letter asking the European Commission (EC) to reconsider aspects of its proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), saying it will have a "chilling effect" on open source software development if implemented in its current form.

Thirteen organizations, including the Eclipse Foundation, Linux Foundation Europe, and the Open Source Initiative (OSI), also note that the Cyber Resilience Act as its written "poses an unnecessary economic and technological risk to the EU."

The purpose of the letter, it seems, is for the open source community to garner a bigger say in the evolution of the CRA as it progresses through the European Parliament.

The letter reads:

We write to express our concern that the greater open source community has been underrepresented during the development of the Cyber Resilience Act to date, and wish to ensure this is remedied throughout the co-legislative process by lending our support. Open source software represents more than 70% of the software present in products with digital elements in Europe. Yet, our community does not have the benefit of an established relationship with the co-legislators.

The software and other technical artefacts produced by us are unprecedented in their contribution to the technology industry along with our digital sovereignty and associated economic benefits on many levels. With the CRA, more than 70% of the software in Europe is about to be regulated without an in-depth consultation.

[...] Penalties for non-compliance may include fines of up to 15M, or 2.5% of global turnover.

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