Dear Matija,
I think Roman has already covered most points, but i'll do another runthrough to be sure:
1. A commercial software product, even under a FOSS licence is in scope of the CRA because there is sale with the intent to make a profit (among other reasons).
2. In all of these cases, a community edition is a separate thing from the commercial product, and in theory not subject to the CRA. The only issue would be if you are automatically the steward of that project if you manufacture the commercial edition. That remains to be seen, but in any case, it would make a lot of sense to be the steward, as it comes without risk of fines, and gives you some legal certainty on your community edition.
3. I don't think the CRA talks about "trial versions", so we don't really have any precedent, but my view would be that by default, the trial version is covered under the same rules as the paid proprietary product it is a trial of. I would highly recommend including a disclaimer that the trial version is for evaluation purposes only, and not including a CE mark on it (although keen to hear others opinions on this). Perhaps this is also something we should ask the Commission about?
I know it's a bit of a maze, but we will get there! As a side point, the approach to enforcement of the CRA will likely be very consensual: market surveillance authorities are unlikely to chase you down and fine you immediately, they might ask you to make changes or provide clarifications on certain things, but fines are really for cases where the developer is not complying and refusing to make any changes. I suspect a lot will become clearer when enforcement begins.
Kind regards,
--
Jordan Maris
EU Policy Analyst, The Open Source Initiative
