On Wed, 15 Nov 2023 at 06:23, Lucas Nussbaum <lu...@debian.org> wrote: > > On 15/11/23 at 00:49 +0000, Luca Boccassi wrote: > > What do you think? Here's what I came up with: > > Hi, > > FWIW, I would likely second something along those lines. Some comments: > > > The Debian project however notes that not enough emphasis has been > > employed in all parts of these regulations to clearly exonerate Free > > and Open Source Software Projects from being subject to the same > > liabilities as commercial products > > I find this part a bit ambiguous. When GitLab or Proxmox or RedHat sells > services around a free software product, I think it's OK if they are > covered by this regulation. Maybe it would be better with > s/Projects/Organizations/? > > Maybe we should underline specific borderline situations where the > impact of the regulation would be unclear?
I think the two paragraphs are clearer than that already when taken together, especially the last bit which essentially boils down to "let us continue to do what we are doing and go after vendors instead kkthxbye", but what about this rewording: The Debian project however notes that not enough emphasis has been employed in all parts of these regulations to clearly exonerate Free and Open Source Software developers and maintainers from being subject to the same liabilities as commercial vendors, which has caused uncertainty and worry among such stakeholders. Therefore, the Debian project asks the legislators to enhance the text of these regulations to clarify beyond any reasonable doubt that Free and Open Source Software developers and contributors are not going to be treated as commercial vendors in the exercise of their duties when merely developing and publishing Free and Open Source Software, with special emphasis on clarifying grey areas, such as donations, contributions from commercial companies and developing Free and Open Source Software that may be later commercialised by a commercial vendor. It is fundamental for the interests of the European Union itself that Free and Open Source Software development can continue to thrive and produce high quality software components, applications and operating systems, and this can only happen if Free and Open Source Software developers and contributors can continue to work on these projects as they have been doing before these new regulations, without being encumbered by legal requirements that are only appropriate for commercial companies and enterprises. > > , which has caused uncertainty and > > worry among Free and Open Source Software developers and stakeholders. > > > > Therefore, the Debian project requests the legislators to enhance the > > (minor) s/requests/asks/? (can we request the legislators?) Sure, I went back-and-forth a few times myself on that phrasing, switched back.
