[open-regulatory-compliance] A more positive take on CRA FAQs and flowch

[Ilu <ilulu@xxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I can understand that people want easy guidance whether they are in,
half in or out of CRA but the whole situation is not easy and in many
cases outright complicated. It does not help to pretend it's easy.

Binary answers like "you are in" or "you are out" might be completely
wrong in an individual case. We ourselves have trouble to formulate the
right questions, how can we expect the devs to give the right answers?

The always correct answer "get legal advice" is the cause of widespread
panic and anger, so that's also out. The IMHO better answer would be:

"If you are a hobbyist without commercial activity or financial interest
in software development of any kind or form and without a team around
you, the CRA is not for you.
If you are not sure about being a hobbyist of that kind, better prepare
to comply with CRA, but do not worry now. It's not that hard and it will
improve your project. There's still enough time and the FOSS community
is going to develop the tools you need. Don't panic and give them time.
If you still worry get in contact with [insert appropriate community]."

Instead of trying to whitewash the whole thing ("you are fine") and
having endless discussions about who's in and who's out we should
concentrate on developing the tools that are needed to comply with the
least possible effort. There are already things going on. Remember, it's
not just the EU CRA, similar stuff is emerging in US, India, Japan, ...
In the end projects will need to learn to accomodate the CRA (and all
its international brothers and sisters) and as soon as they do
contributors don't have to worry.

Kind regards
Ilu