[throwaway294566]

> Nobody wants to chase open source developers.

That might be true for the lawmakers. But as it is, there will be unintended consequences:

First, what the article criticizes: Open-Source development might be discouraged because the exemption isn't clear and encompassing enough. Compliance is enough of a burden to stop any "halfway commercial" OSS developments in the EU, with a very wide interpretation of "halfway commercial".

Second, there will be the ambulance chasing kind of lawyers profiting from any kind of ambiguity by sending expensive warning letters ("Abmahnungen"). Those scumbag lawyers definitely want to chase open source developers and everybody else without a big legal team who provides them with an opportunity...

And experience shows that lawmakers have always been unable or unwilling to write laws with the necessary clarity and non-ambiguity.

[chasil]

OSS developers could simply include a disclaimer along with their chosen license:

"The developer of this software attests that it does not and will not comply with the EU CRA, and may not be used as critical infrastructure within the European Union. Any entity incorporating this software in products sold in the European Union agrees to perform all required compliance, and hold the developer harmless. Any compliance failure shall terminate all licensing of this software to all involved parties."

What that does to [vendors in] the EU would be interesting to see.

[throwaway294566]

For developers outside the EU, this is automatically how it works. Only somebody selling or importing in the EU needs to worry about CE compliance.

The big problem imho is for EU-resident OSS developers.