I'm amazed that there has been zero coverage of this:

EU's new Product Liability Directive got voted through last thursday.

No later than two years from now, software, stand-alone, cloud or embedded are subject to "no-fault liability" (ie: doesn't matter how or why, only that it is defective.)

Here's the directive:

data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/d

Gentlemen, start your panic…

PS: Yes, there is a FOSS exemption, but only "outside commercial activity". (Ie: The guy in Nebraska but not RedHat)

@bsdphk Did I get this right? Any commercial entity / company / freelancer who currently contributes to FOSS can be sued by anyone using the Software?
This does not seem like a good idea.

@chris

The crucial criteria is "outside commercial activity"

If you make money making something, isn't it fair to hold you accountable if it is defective ?

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@bsdphk @chris

The exception seems somewhat contradictorily described: point 14 on page 7 first says that the exception applies to software developed _or_ supplied outside of commercial activity and then says that the exception does not apply if the software is supplied commercially, regardless of how it's distributed. I expect that the intended reading is the latter (it's also what I would a priori expect), so am somewhat confused by the "(...) this Directive should not apply to free and open-source software developed or supplied outside the course of a commercial activity (...)" passage.

@robryk @bsdphk Tangentially: I often considered to write a kind of IDE for people working on legal texts, but I can’t be sure that e.g. it does not accidentally use the wrong color of a font in a stupid place caused by a bug in some library.

I guess writing and publishing software that may be used by legal experts will become … interesting.

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