Hi,
This is the second call for votes.
Voting period starts 2023-12-09 00:00:00 UTC
Votes must be received by 2023-12-22 23:59:59 UTC
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VOTING FORM
- - -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 52bbd34b-1e8e-45ad-bd32-e517dbf2958c
[ ] Choice 1: CRA and PLD proposals include regulations detrimental to FOSS
[ ] Choice 2: CRA and PLD proposals should only apply to commercial ventures
[ ] Choice 3: The EU should not overrule DFSG 6 and FOSS licenses
[ ] Choice 4: None Of The Above
- - -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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BALLOT OPTIONS
Choice 1: CRA and PLD proposals include regulations detrimental to FOSS =======================================================================
Debian Public Statement about the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the
Product Liability Directive
The European Union is currently preparing a regulation "on horizontal
cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements" known as
the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). It is currently in the final "trilogue"
phase of the legislative process. The act includes a set of essential
cybersecurity and vulnerability handling requirements for manufacturers.
It will require products to be accompanied by information and
instructions to the user. Manufacturers will need to perform risk
assessments and produce technical documentation and, for critical
components, have third-party audits conducted. Discovered security
issues will have to be reported to European authorities within 24 hours
(1). The CRA will be followed up by the Product Liability Directive
(PLD) which will introduce compulsory liability for software.
While a lot of these regulations seem reasonable, the Debian project
believes that there are grave problems for Free Software projects
attached to them. Therefore, the Debian project issues the following
statement:
1. Free Software has always been a gift, freely given to society, to
take and to use as seen fit, for whatever purpose. Free Software has
proven to be an asset in our digital age and the proposed EU Cyber
Resilience Act is going to be detrimental to it.
a. As the Debian Social Contract states, our goal is "make the best
system we can, so that free works will be widely distributed and used."
Imposing requirements such as those proposed in the act makes it legally
perilous for others to redistribute our work and endangers our commitment
to "provide an integrated system of high-quality materials with no legal
restrictions that would prevent such uses of the system". (2)
b. Knowing whether software is commercial or not isn't feasible,
neither in Debian nor in most free software projects - we don't track
people's employment status or history, nor do we check who finances
upstream projects (the original projects that we integrate in our
operating system).
c. If upstream projects stop making available their code
for fear of being in the
scope of CRA and its financial consequences, system security will
actually get worse rather than better.
d. Having to get legal advice before giving a gift to society
will discourage many developers, especially those without a company or
other organisation supporting them.
2. Debian is well known for its security track record through practices
of responsible disclosure and coordination with upstream developers and
other Free Software projects. We aim to live up to the commitment made
in the Debian Social Contract: "We will not hide problems." (3)
a. The Free Software community has developed a fine-tuned,
tried-and-tested system of responsible disclosure in case of security
issues which will be overturned by the mandatory reporting to European
authorities within 24 hours (Art. 11 CRA).
b. Debian spends a lot of volunteering time on security issues,
provides quick security updates and works closely together with upstream
projects and in coordination with other vendors. To protect its users,
Debian regularly participates in limited embargos to coordinate fixes to
security issues so that all other major Linux distributions can also have
a complete fix when the vulnerability is disclosed.
c. Security issue tracking and remediation is intentionally
decentralized and distributed. The reporting of security issues to
ENISA and the intended propagation to other authorities and national
administrations would collect all software vulnerabilities in one place.
This greatly increases the risk of leaking information about vulnerabilities
to threat actors, representing a threat for all the users around the
world, including European citizens.
d. Activists use Debian (e.g. through derivatives such as Tails),
among other reasons, to protect themselves from authoritarian
governments; handing threat actors exploits they can use for oppression
is against what Debian stands for.
e. Developers and companies will downplay security issues because
a "security" issue now comes with legal implications. Less clarity on
what is truly a security issue will hurt users by leaving them vulnerable.
3. While proprietary software is developed behind closed doors, Free
Software development is done in the open, transparent for everyone. To
retain parity with proprietary software the open development process needs
to be entirely exempt from CRA requirements, just as the development of
software in private is. A "making available on the market" can only be
considered after development is finished and the software is released.
4. Even if only "commercial activities" are in the scope of CRA, the
Free Software community - and as a consequence, everybody - will lose a
lot of small projects. CRA will force many small enterprises and most
probably all self employed developers out of business because they
simply cannot fulfill the requirements imposed by CRA. Debian and other
Linux distributions depend on their work. If accepted as it is,
CRA will undermine not only an established community but also a
thriving market. CRA needs an exemption for small businesses and, at the
very least, solo-entrepreneurs.
=========
Sources:
(1) CRA proposals and links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-europe-fit-for-the-digital-age/file-european-cyber-resilience-act
PLD proposals and links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-europe-fit-for-the-digital-age/file-new-product-liability-directive
(2) Debian Social Contract No. 2, 3 and 4
https://www.debian.org/social_contract
Choice 2: CRA and PLD proposals should only apply to commercial ventures ========================================================================
Debian Public Statement about the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the
Product Liability Directive
The European Union is currently preparing a regulation "on horizontal
cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements" known as
the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). It's currently in the final "trilogue"
phase of the legislative process. The act includes a set of essential
cybersecurity and vulnerability handling requirements for manufacturers.
It will require products to be accompanied by information and
instructions to the user. Manufacturers will need to perform risk
assessments and produce technical documentation and for critical
components, have third-party audits conducted. Security issues under
active exploitation will have to be reported to European authorities
within 24 hours (1). The CRA will be followed up by an update to the
existing Product Liability Directive (PLD) which, among other things,
will introduce the requirement for products on the market using software
to be able to receive updates to address security vulnerabilities.
Given the current state of the electronics and computing devices market,
constellated with too many irresponsible vendors not taking taking
enough precautions to ensure and maintain the security of their products,
resulting in grave issues such as the plague of ransomware (that, among
other things, has often caused public services to be severely hampered or
shut down entirely, across the European Union and beyond, to the
detriment of its citizens), the Debian project welcomes this initiative
and supports its spirit and intent.
The Debian project believes Free and Open Source Software Projects to be
very well positioned to respond to modern challenges around security and
accountability that these regulations aim to improve for products
commercialized on the Single Market. Debian is well known for its
security track record through practices of responsible disclosure and
coordination with upstream developers and other Free and Open Source
Software projects. The project aims to live up to the commitment made in
the Debian Social Contract: "We will not hide problems." (2)
The Debian project welcomes the attempt of the legislators to ensure
that the development of Free and Open Source Software is not negatively
affected by these regulations, as clearly expressed by the European
Commission in response to stakeholders' requests (1) and as stated in
Recital 10 of the preamble to the CRA:
'In order not to hamper innovation or research, free and open-source
software developed or supplied outside the course of a commercial
activity should not be covered by this Regulation.'
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, especially but not
exclusively in the context of nonprofit organizations, without being
encumbered by legal requirements that are only appropriate for
commercial companies and enterprises.
=========
Sources:
(1) CRA proposals and links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-europe-fit-for-the-digital-age/file-proposal-for-cybersecurity-regulation
PLD proposals and links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-europe-fit-for-the-digital-age/file-new-product-liability-directive
Response from the European Commission to a question from the European Parliament on FOSS awareness:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-002473-ASW_EN.html
(2) Debian Social Contract No. 2, 3 and 4
https://www.debian.org/social_contract
Choice 3: The EU should not overrule DFSG 6 and FOSS licenses =============================================================
Debian Public Statement about the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the
Product Liability Directive (PLD)
The CRA includes requirements for manufacturers of software, followed
up by the PLD with compulsory liability for software. The Debian
project has concerns on the impact on Free and Open-Source Software
(FOSS).
The CRA makes the use of FOSS in commercial context more difficult.
This goes against the philosophy of the Debian project. The Debian Free
Software Guidelines (DFSG) include "6. No Discrimination Against Fields
of Endeavor - The license must not restrict anyone from making use of
the program in a specific field of endeavor." A significant part of the
success of FOSS is its use in commercial context. It should remain
possible for anyone to produce, publish and use FOSS, without making it
harder for commercial entities or for any group of FOSS users.
The compulsory liability as meant in the PLD overrules the usual
liability disclaimers in FOSS licenses. This makes sharing FOSS with
the public more legally risky. The compulsory liability makes sense for
closed-source software, where the users fully depend on the
manufacturers. With FOSS the users have the option of helping
themselves with the source code, and/or hiring any consultant on the
market. The usual liability disclaimers in FOSS licenses should remain
valid without the risk of being overruled by the PLD.
The Debian project asks the EU to not draw a line between commercial
and non-commercial use of FOSS. Such line should instead be between
closed-source software and FOSS. FOSS should be entirely exempt from
the CRA and the PLD.
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