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Comment on Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates

“owner” is typically the maintainer,

Nope, AFAIK that is not legally applicable, that is very clear with licenses like MIT BSD etc, and for GPL in all versions it’s very explicitly stated in the license.
You can also release as simply public domain, which very obviously means nobody owns as it is owned by everybody.
Generally if you give something away for free, you can’t be claimed to be the owner.
I have no idea where that idea should come from, some typical anti EU alarmists maybe? And I bet there is zero legal precedent for that. And I seriously doubt any lawyer would support your claim.

If however you choose a license where the creator keeps ownership it may be different, but then it’s not FOSS.

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ell1e@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
As far as I understand, the license doesn’t matter for EU regulation.

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- Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  If it’s proprietary it doesn’t, between proprietary and FOSS it absolutely does for the reasons I already stated.
  
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  - ell1e@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=…
    
    Supply in the course of a commercial activity might be characterised not only by charging a price for a product with digital elements, but also by charging a price for technical support services where this does not serve only the recuperation of actual costs, by an intention to monetise, for instance by providing a software platform through which the manufacturer monetises other services, by requiring as a condition for use the processing of personal data for reasons other than exclusively for improving the security, compatibility or interoperability of the software, or by accepting donations exceeding the costs associated with the design, development and provision of a product with digital elements
    
    TL;DR, just donations can already be a problem.
    
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    Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    but also by charging a price for technical support
    
    Which exactly includes systems like RedHat which I already included, but in no way includes voluntary FOSS work for free.
    
    an intention to monetise
    
    Again it’s very much about the money.
    
    just donations can already be a problem, apparently. But IANAL.
    
    NOPE!!!
    Donations are not a charge.
    
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