| I was about to write a knee-jerk comment about how short-sighted the EU law is, but then I stopped and rethought. EU (and India) are fundamentally trying to strengthen their local economies and severe their dependence on US based entities. I could disagree but I think it’s really important to understand that these are sovereign nations with dedicated think tanks. Policy decisions like this are debated and then enacted. It would not be surprising if the coverage of Open Source software repositories is not accidental, but actually a very well thought nuance because truth is that nearly all big Open Source entities are US based! In the eyes of the policy makers, The “big tech problem” may not be limited to commercial for-profit entities and arguably more relevant to open-source which is where EU is betting it’s future on. However absurd it may seem to a open source activist, it may not seem absurd for a policy maker to consider that open source stewardship should have an independent EU chapter as well that answers to EU policy and abides by the local laws. It may not happen on day 1, but policymakers of such wide ranging laws like the Digital Markets act, think more in decades, than years. TL;DR - Interesting interpretation is that Digital Market act purposefully covers all “big tech players” - commercial or open source. In the eyes of EU policy makers Mozilla, Apache and Debian foundations could very well be as “US controlled” and “strategically important” as commercial entities! (disclaimer: I work for a large corporation, but this comment is my own 1am thought!) |