Definitely don’t intend to speak for Mike, but my assumption is that the link 
he intended to include in his email is this: 
https://news.apache.org/foundation/entry/save-open-source-the-impending-tragedy-of-the-cyber-resilience-act

Mike, humblest apologies if I’m mistaken. The link you included in your email 
was in regards to AI use, and while informative, didn’t seem related to the 
topic at hand.

Regards,
David

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Mike Milinkovich 
via lists.spdx.org <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, July 31, 2023 at 1:24 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]>, 'scrm-nist' <[email protected]>, 
'swsupplychain-eo' <[email protected]>, 'Steve Springett' 
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [spdx] EU CRA is very supportive of SBOM

Dick,

We can all agree that improving the security of software is necessary. 
Consumers deserve protections that they currently do not have. Regulation of 
the software industry is coming and is arguably overdue.

I agree that the CRA is intended to protect consumers. But it is also 
definitely an attack on open source developers. I can say that with certainty 
because I have met the authors of the CRA in person and discussed it at length 
with them. 
(Here<https://news.apache.org/foundation/entry/asf-legal-committee-issues-generative-ai-guidance-to-contributors>
 is an excellent summary of the issues and motivations from the Apache Software 
Foundation.)

I have not met a single open source developer who does not see the CRA as an 
attack on them and their projects. Because it is.

The CRA does nothing to improve the compensation of open source developers or 
the sustainability of open source projects. Instead it places a massive 
regulatory and legal burden on the people and nonprofits least able to deal 
with it. In contrast, the US National Cybersecurity Strategy is demonstrating 
that it is possible to protect consumers while still retaining software freedom.
On 2023-07-30 8:05 a.m., Dick Brooks wrote:
Mike,

I agree. The CRA is raising questions about the open-source business model, 
which IMO is broken and needs to be fixed. Open-source developers and 
maintainers are very talented and work very hard; they deserve to be properly 
compensated as they develop more “secure by design” concepts into their 
software offerings.

IMO, The EU CRA is designed to help protect the consumers of software; they 
bare all the cost, risks and harm of a cyber-incident.

If you think of this in another context, would you as a consumer accept a free 
food product that causes cancer to occur?
Would you accept software that causes a malicious cyber incident to occur?

As I said, IMO the EU CRA is more about consumer protection than an attack on 
open-source developers.

Thanks,

Dick Brooks
[cid:[email protected]]  
[cid:[email protected]]
Active Member of the CISA Critical Manufacturing Sector,
Sector Coordinating Council – A Public-Private Partnership

Never trust software, always verify and 
report!<https://reliableenergyanalytics.com/products> ™
http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com<http://www.reliableenergyanalytics.com/>
Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Tel: +1 978-696-1788


From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mike Milinkovich 
via lists.spdx.org
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2023 4:51 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; scrm-nist 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>; swsupplychain-eo 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>; Steve Springett 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [spdx] EU CRA is very supportive of SBOM

On 2023-07-27 10:52 a.m., Dick Brooks wrote:

Today, all the risks and cost from a cyber attack fall on the consumer.



IMO the EU CRA is designed to protect consumers by sharing responsibility for 
cyber attack liabilities with software producers.



The issue IMO is the open source model fails to properly compensate the 
talented people behind open source projects


The entire open source ecosystem is built upon the understanding that the 
software is freely provided, but that the producers of free software provide no 
warranties and accept no liability. The CRA breaks that fundamental deal by 
imposing CE Mark conformance requirements on all software, including all of the 
open source software that matters, made available in Europe. Failure to conform 
with these requirements results in a fine of the greater of €15 million or 2.5% 
of the manufacturer's annual revenue, whichever is greater.

Under the CRA the responsibility for implementing CE Mark conformance will fall 
upon the people and groups least able to deal with the effort. I.e. the 
developers, projects, communities, and nonprofit foundations who distribute 
open source projects. The end result will not be more secure software. The end 
result will be that many projects will say that their open source software 
cannot be used in Europe. Which will not be a positive result for the EU.

It is important to stress that this is not a misunderstanding. The European 
Commission and the relevant parliamentary committee know full well that the 
words in the CRA will impose these requirements on the open source community.

In addition, the CRA will require open source projects to report unpatched 
vulnerabilities to either national authorities or ENISA (depending on which 
version prevails in the trilogue). It will also outlaw open source development 
best practices where intermediate builds are made available under open source 
licenses (see Article 4).

I know this is a place where everyone gets to talk about how great SBOMs are. 
But defending the CRA because it mandates SBOMs is absurd.

The approach outlined in the US National Cybersecurity Strategy is far better. 
It makes it clear that the open source producers will not be held responsible 
and puts the responsibility for security on the parties who are commercializing 
the open source components. That approach is far more likely to achieve the 
result we all desire, which is more secure software.



On Jul 26, 2023, at 4:24 PM, John Sullivan 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> wrote:



On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 09:21:30AM -0400, Dick Brooks wrote:

Very encouraging language in the EU CRA for SBOM adoption and vulnerability

monitoring/reporting.



Small consolation given what a potential disaster the CRA is for open

source / free software in general (see especially Problem 3):

https://github.blog/2023-07-12-no-cyber-resilience-without-open-source-sustainability/
--

Mike Milinkovich

Executive Director Eclipse Foundation AISBL
--

Mike Milinkovich

Executive Director | Eclipse Foundation AISBL



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#1727): https://lists.spdx.org/g/spdx/message/1727
Mute This Topic: https://lists.spdx.org/mt/100370207/21656
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://lists.spdx.org/g/spdx/leave/2655439/21656/1698928721/xyzzy 
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Reply via email to