Re: [open-regulatory-compliance] A more positive take on CRA FAQs and fl

["Salve J. Nilsen" <sjn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 3 Jan 2025, Ilu via open-regulatory-compliance wrote:

> If you have any connection to anything business-like - for example if
> you are working as a dev or anywhere in the software business - you are
> most probably not a hobbyist.

One possibly relevant matter: There's a common contractual feature that is
in effect for many employees in software businesses: That software written
by the employee outside of their work hours/environment is not to be owned
by the employer.

An example of this type of contract clause/addition is the "Balanced
Employee IP Agreement" published by Github:

https://github.com/github/balanced-employee-ip-agreement

If someone publishes their own work (written in their own free time),
shouldn't this be considered independently of anything work-related?


> In that case you have 3 options:
> 1. Decide that you are not under CRA and hope you are right.
> 2. Get legal advice and pay for it.
> 3. Assume that you are under CRA and comply.

How does the CRA's Recital 18 play into this? To me, it offers a
clarifying option: That the maintainer can explicitly "opt in" to the CRA
(at least the Steward-related bits of it?) by declaring that their
software is "Intended for commectial use" and assign a Steward for their
project.

Is this a reasonable interpretation to work with?


> We need to asure projects that being in scope is not a disaster. That
> they are not alone but part of a community. That the communities are
> working on guidelines how to comply. That not everything needs to be
> immediately perfect. That there is still enough time and that time will
> bring clarity. That the EU authorities will not immediately crack down
> on FOSS in 2027, especially not on smaller projects. That complying with
> CRA is the best way to prepare for PLD.

Spot on! :-)


- Salve J. Nilsen (CPANSec volunteer)

-- 
#!/usr/bin/env perl
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getc DATA}$"="'};&{'";@_=unpack("C*",unpack("u*",':50,$'.#    <sjn@xxxxxx>
'3!=0"59,6!`%%P\0!1)46%!F.Q`%01,`'."\n"));eval "&{'@_'}";  __END__ is near! :)