In Support of Sound Public Policy: How to Avoid Unintended Consequences to OSS in Lawmaking
Channel: OpenForum Europe
Date: 10/02/2023

As Open Source has taken on monumental importance in the digital markets being the main model for software development, its exposure to regulatory risk has increased. Just in the last few years we have seen policymakers, often despite their best intentions, unintentionally targeting Open Source developers, repositories or the innovation model itself. To name some examples: the Copyright Directive, and more recently the AI Act and the Cyber Resilience Act all have created unintended regulatory risk for OSS. In this panel, we will discuss the status of ongoing files, but also take a few steps back and suggest approaches to how policymakers can avoid these unintended consequences. How to consider developers and communities in the legislative process? How does the very horizontal Open Source ecosystem fit into the EU system of vertical multistakeholderism? What is the responsibility of Open Source experts to engage earlier with policymakers?