Russia has enacted a new law [1]expanding control over cryptocurrency mining , granting multiple federal agencies access to digital currency identifier addresses, among other things. The country is also advancing its regulatory framework and experimenting with crypto in international trade. From a report:

> Taking effect on Nov. 1, the legislation includes several amendments designed to strengthen oversight and impose limitations on crypto mining activities based on regional needs. The law enables the Russian government to implement mining restrictions by location and define specific procedures and circumstances for banning mining operations. A notable provision in the law gives the government the power to stop digital currency mining pools from functioning in certain areas. Additionally, the government now has the authority to regulate infrastructure providers supporting mining operations.

>

> This legislation also grants multiple federal agencies, beyond the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), access to digital currency identifier addresses. This expansion includes federal executive agencies and law enforcement, bolstering their capability to track transactions that may be linked to money laundering or terrorist financing activities. Moreover, the amendments transfer responsibility for the national mining register from the Ministry of Digital Development to the Federal Tax Service, which will now oversee mining registrations for businesses and remove those with repeated infractions. While individual miners can continue without registering if they adhere to specific electricity consumption limits, companies and individual entrepreneurs must comply with new registration requirements.



[1] https://news.bitcoin.com/russia-publishes-new-crypto-law-expanding-state-control-over-digital-assets/

AT&T has [1]signed a $1 billion multi-year deal with Corning to acquire fiber and connectivity solutions. Reuters reports:

> With the U.S. wireless market facing a slowdown, telecom companies such as AT&T and rival Verizon have doubled down on their high-speed internet businesses, an area that has long been dominated by broadband companies such as Comcast. Demand has also been growing for AT&T's plans that allow customers to combine its high-speed fiber data with its wireless phone service for a discount. In the third quarter, AT&T reported 28.3 million fiber passings, or the number of potential customer locations a fiber network passes by. It remains on track to pass more than 30 million fiber passings by the end of 2025.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/att-announces-1-bln-fiber-deal-with-corning-2024-10-28/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge:

> Apple's AI features are [1]finally starting to appear . Apple Intelligence is [2]launching today on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, offering features like generative AI-powered writing tools, notification summaries, and a cleanup tool to take distractions out of photos. It's Apple's first official step into the AI era, but it'll be far from its last. Apple Intelligence has been available in developer and public beta builds of Apple's operating systems for the past few months, but today marks the first time it'll be available in the full public OS releases. Even so, the features will still be marked as "beta," and Apple Intelligence will very much remain a work in progress. (You'll have to [3]get on a waitlist to try Apple Intelligence, too.) Siri gets a new look, but its most consequential new features -- like the ability to take action in apps -- probably won't arrive until well into 2025.

>

> In the meantime, Apple has released a very "AI starter kit" [4]set of features . "Writing Tools" will help you summarize notes, change the tone of your messages to make them friendlier or more professional, and turn a wall of text into a list or table. You'll see AI summaries in notifications and emails, along with a new focus mode that aims to filter out unimportant alerts. The updated Siri is signified by a glowing border around the screen, and it now allows for text input by double-tapping the bottom of the screen. It's helpful stuff, but we've seen a lot of this before, and it'll hardly represent a seismic shift in how you use your iPhone. Apple says that more Apple Intelligence features will arrive in December. [...] Availability will expand in December to Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK, with additional languages coming in April.

Despite Apple's [5]previous claim that Apple Intelligence wouldn't be available in the European Union due to the Digital Markets Act, the features will, in fact, be coming to Europe in April of next year.

Further reading: [6]Apple Updates the iMac With M4 Chip



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/28/24272995/apple-intelligence-now-available-ios-18-1-mac-ipad

[2] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apple-intelligence-is-available-today-on-iphone-ipad-and-mac/

[3] https://support.apple.com/en-us/121115#:~:text=To%20get%20started%20with%20Apple,though%20wait%20times%20can%20vary

[4] https://support.apple.com/en-us/121115#:~:text=The%20first%20set%20of%20Apple%20Intelligence%20features

[5] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/06/21/1652202/apple-wont-roll-out-ai-tech-in-eu-market-over-regulatory-concerns

[6] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/10/28/169206/apple-updates-the-imac-with-m4-chip

A commercial military simulation software, originally inspired by Tom Clancy novels, has [1]become an unexpected tool for military training across NATO forces and defense analysts worldwide. Command: Professional Edition, developed by Britain's Slitherine Software, has secured contracts with the U.S. Air Force and British Strategic Command, while Taiwanese analysts use it to war-game potential conflicts with China.

The software's success stems from its vast database of military equipment and capabilities, compiled through contributions from its million-strong user base. Marine Corps University's wargaming director Tim Barrick employs the software to train officers, noting its effectiveness in developing tactical creativity. "These are not simple problems," said Barrick, a retired Marine colonel, told WSJ.

A fascinating excerpt from the report:

> Command's British publisher, Slitherine Software, stumbled into popularity. The family business got started around 2000 selling retail CD-ROM games like Legion, involving ancient Roman military campaigns. When Defense Department officials in 2016 first contacted Slitherine, which is based in an old house in a leafy London suburb, its father-and-son managers were so stunned they thought the call might be a prank. "Are you taking the piss?" J.D. McNeil, the father, recalled asking near the end of the conversation.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-million-people-play-this-video-wargame-so-does-the-pentagon/ar-AA1sZEGv

Microsoft took the unusual step on Monday of publicly criticizing longtime rival Google [1]for running "shadow campaigns" in Europe designed to discredit the software giant with regulators. CNBC:

> Microsoft lawyer Rima Alaily wrote in a blog post that Google hired a firm to recruit European cloud companies to represent the search company's case. "This week an astroturf group organized by Google is launching," Microsoft lawyer Rima Alaily wrote in a blog post. "It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public. Google has gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization."

>

> The conflict represents a fresh battle between two companies that do battle in cloud infrastructure as well as online advertising and productivity software. The latest chapter surfaces as Google faces heightened regulatory pressure in Europe and in the U.S., where it's in the midst of its second antitrust trial against the Justice Department. Alaily suggested in Monday's post that Google hired advisory firm DGA Group to set up the Open Cloud Coalition. One company that opted not to participate in the group told Microsoft that the coalition would receive financial backing from Google and criticize Microsoft's practices in Europe, Alaily wrote.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/28/microsoft-calls-out-google-for-shadow-campaigns-in-europe-in-cloud.html

An anonymous reader [1]shares a report :

> Around 1.5 million of Britain's 7.2 million lampposts could be removed to save money and reduce carbon emissions and replaced with lighting that will make it safer for pedestrians.

>

> Under existing rules, there is no requirement to light pavements for pedestrians. They are only lit because light spills over from lampposts, which were principally installed to make it safer for motorists. But today's cars have such effective headlights that lampposts, which are generally 10m tall on A-roads and 6m tall on residential roads, are not necessary in many parts of Britain. Lampposts will remain in place in many locations where they are necessary, such as in cities where CCTV cameras rely on good lighting.



[1] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/britain-to-axe-up-to-15m-lampposts-see-how-it-would-look-rjt86b9dh

Apple has maintained the controversial bottom-charging design in its [1]new $79-$99 USB-C Magic Mouse , released [2]alongside the new iMac Tuesday, [3]despite years of customer criticism . The port location, unchanged since 2015, renders the mouse unusable while charging.



[1] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MXK63AM/A/magic-mouse-usb%E2%80%91c-black-multi-touch-surface

[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/10/28/169206/apple-updates-the-imac-with-m4-chip

[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/09/30/0544225/apple-is-really-bad-at-design

Italian technology firm Bending Spoons has emerged as an unconventional private equity player, [1]acquiring struggling tech companies and dramatically restructuring them for profitability, most notably with its [2]purchase of note-taking app Evernote .

The Milan-based company, valued at $2.6 billion, has acquired six companies since 2022, [3]including WeTransfer and Meetup's assets. CEO Luca Ferrari has told investors the company could deploy up to $2 billion for future acquisitions. Bending Spoons typically targets subscription-based software companies with steady cash flow, implementing steep price hikes and significant staff reductions post-acquisition.

At Evernote, the company dismissed over half the workforce and increased annual subscription costs by 63% to $130. The strategy appears to be working. Bending Spoons reports annual sales have surged to $700 million from $162 million in 2022, with Evernote turning profitable earlier this year.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-28/private-equity-for-apps-evernote-s-owner-has-big-plans

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/11/16/1629219/bending-spoons-to-acquire-evernote

[3] https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/09/1046203/bending-spoons-plans-to-cut-75-of-wetransfer-staff-after-acquisition

There's finally an "official" [1]definition of open source AI . The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a long-running institution aiming to define and "steward" all things open source, today released version 1.0 of its Open Source AI Definition (OSAID). TechCrunch:

> The product of several years of collaboration with academia and industry, the OSAID is intended to offer a standard by which anyone can determine whether AI is open source -- or not. You might be wondering why consensus matters for a definition of open source AI. Well, a big motivation is getting policymakers and AI developers on the same page, said OSI EVP Stefano Maffulli.

>

> "Regulators are already watching the space," Maffulli told TechCrunch, noting that bodies like the European Commission have sought to give special recognition to open source. "We did explicit outreach to a diverse set of stakeholders and communities -- not only the usual suspects in tech. We even tried to reach out to the organizations that most often talk to regulators in order to get their early feedback." [...] To be considered open source under the OSAID, an AI model has to provide enough information about its design so that a person could "substantially" recreate it. The model must also disclose any pertinent details about its training data, including the provenance, how the data was processed, and how it can be obtained or licensed.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/28/we-finally-have-an-official-definition-for-open-source-ai/

England and Wales have [1]recorded their lowest birth rate since records began in 1938, with women having an average of 1.44 children in 2023, official data showed on Monday. The figure falls well below the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain a stable population without migration in developed nations, the Office for National Statistics reported.

The rate has declined steadily since 2010. The steepest drops occurred among women under 30, with new mothers in 2023 averaging almost a year older than in 2013. Experts link the decline to multiple factors, including widespread contraception use, women's increased participation in education and employment, and rising childcare and housing costs. The trend mirrors similar patterns across developed economies, with EU nations like Italy and Spain reporting rates as low as 1.2 children per woman in 2023.



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvj3j27nmro

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> As Meta tries to keep up with OpenAI in developing AI, the Facebook owner is [1]working on a search engine [ [2]non-paywalled link ] that crawls the web to provide conversational answers about current events to people using its Meta AI chatbot.

>

> In doing so, Meta hopes to lower its reliance on Google Search and Microsoft's Bing, which currently provide information about news, sports and stocks to people using Meta AI, according to a person who has spoken with the search engine team. It could also give Meta a backup option if Google or Microsoft withdrew from these arrangements, according to a person who has been involved with the strategy.



[1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-develops-ai-search-engine-to-lessen-reliance-on-google-microsoft

[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/meta-develops-own-ai-search-engine-cut-reliance-google-bing-information-reports-2024-10-28/

Apple has updated the iMac lineup with an M4 chip. The new iMac, announced this morning, includes [1]an M4 chip with an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU . The entry-level model costs $1,299 with two Thunderbolt USB-C 4 ports, while the higher-end models start at $1,499 and have four ports. The Verge:

> It's also bundled with accessories that now use USB-C charging ports instead of Lightning. Like the prior model, the new iMac has a 24-inch, 4.5K display. However, Apple is offering a new "nano-texture glass option" for $200 extra, which is supposed to help reduce reflections and glare.

>

> Additionally, the iMac's base RAM has been doubled to 16GB over the prior model, with the ability to configure the higher-end option with up to 32GB. Apple's new iMac also comes with a 12MP webcam, along with new Apple Intelligence features that are starting to roll out today, such as AI-powered writing and editing features and a redesigned Siri.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/28/24273124/apple-imac-m4-chip-announced-price-release-date

[1]AmiMoJo shares a report:

> Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near "human level robustness and accuracy." But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to [2]making up chunks of text or even entire sentences , according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers.

>

> Those experts said some of the invented text -- known in the industry as hallucinations -- can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments. Experts said that such fabrications are problematic because Whisper is being used in a slew of industries worldwide to translate and transcribe interviews, generate text in popular consumer technologies and create subtitles for videos.

>

> [...] It's impossible to compare Nabla's AI-generated transcript to the original recording because Nabla's tool erases the original audio for "data safety reasons," Nabla's chief technology officer Martin Raison said.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~AmiMoJo

[2] https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14

Banks and regulators are warning that QR code phishing scams -- also known as "quishing" -- are slipping through corporate cyber defences and [1]increasingly tricking customers into giving up their financial details. From a report:

> Lenders including Santander, HSBC, and TSB have joined the UK National Cyber Security Centre and US Federal Trade Commission among others to raise concerns about a rise in fraudulent QR codes being deployed for sophisticated fraud campaigns.

>

> The new type of email scam often involves criminals sending QR codes in attached PDFs. Experts said the strategy is effective because the messages frequently get through corporate cyber security filters -- software that typically flags malicious website links, but often does not scan images within attachments. "The appeal for criminals is that it's bypassing all of the [cyber security] training and it's also bypassing our products," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior adviser at security software company Sophos.



[1] https://www.ft.com/content/8aca741e-6448-4511-a54d-64f3a97747b1

Indonesia has [1]banned sales of Apple's iPhone 16 , citing the tech giant's failure to meet local investment requirements, the country's Ministry of Industry said. The ministry said Apple's local unit has not fulfilled the mandatory 40% local content threshold for smartphones, making imported iPhone 16 units illegal for sale in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

About 9,000 iPhone 16 devices have entered Indonesia through passenger luggage since last month's launch. "These phones entered legally, but will be illegal if traded," the ministry said. Apple has invested 1.48 trillion rupiah ($108 million) of its 1.71 trillion rupiah commitment in Indonesia. The company operates four developer academies but no manufacturing facilities in the country, despite government pressure to expand its presence.



[1] https://9to5mac.com/2024/10/27/iphone-16-indonesia-ban/

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from the blog OMG Ubuntu :

> Having recently announced is own range of [2]Raspberry Pi-branded SD cards (with support for command queuing on the Pi 5 and reliable read/write speeds) the company is now offering its own range of branded Raspberry Pi SSDs... And for those who don't have an M.2 expansion board? Well, that's where the new [3]Raspberry Pi SSD Kit comes in. It bundles the official M.2 HAT+ with an SSD for an all-in-one, ready-to-roll solution.

Eben Upton [4]expects it to be a popular feature :

> When we [5]launched Raspberry Pi 5, almost exactly a year ago, I thought the thing people would get most excited about was the three-fold increase in performance over 2019's Raspberry Pi 4. But very quickly it became clear that it was the other new features — the power button (!), and the PCI Express port — that had captured people's imagination. We've seen everything from Ethernet adapters, to AI accelerators, to regular [6]PC graphics cards attached to the PCI Express port... We've also released an [7]AI Kit , which bundles the M.2 HAT+ with an AI inference accelerator from our friends at [8]Hailo . But the most popular use case for the PCI Express port on Raspberry Pi 5 is to attach an NVMe solid-state disk (SSD).

>

> SSDs are fast; faster even than our branded [9]A2-class SD cards . If no-compromises performance is your goal, you'll want to run Raspberry Pi OS from an SSD, and Raspberry Pi SSDs are the perfect choice. The entry-level 256GB drive is priced at $30 on its own, or $40 as a kit; its 512GB big brother is priced at $45 on its own, or $55 as a kit... The 256GB SSD and SSD Kit are available to buy today, while the 512GB variants are available to pre-order now for shipping by the end of November.

>

> So, there you have it: a cost-effective way to squeeze even more performance out of your Raspberry Pi 5. Enjoy!



[1] https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/10/raspberry-pi-launch-own-brand-ssds-priced-from-30

[2] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/sd-cards/

[3] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/ssd-kit/

[4] https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-ssds-and-ssd-kits/

[5] https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/introducing-raspberry-pi-5/

[6] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/use-external-gpu-on-raspberry-pi-5-4k-gaming

[7] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/ai-kit/

[8] https://hailo.ai/

[9] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/sd-cards/

When SpaceX developed reusable boosters for its Falcon rockets, it helped cut costs of launches.

Now [1]the Wall Street Journal reports that last week's first-time catch of "its huge Starship booster" could "extend SpaceX's cost advantages, especially in launches to low-Earth orbit, where SpaceX and others operate satellites."

> A [2]fully and rapidly reusable Starship would push down SpaceX's costs by limiting the need to crank out new hardware and cutting downtime between flights, space industry executives say. Bain, the consulting firm, has estimated that Starship would reduce the cost of getting each kilogram to low-Earth orbit by 50 to 80 times... SpaceX's rocket peers are moving toward reusability, but they are behind the progress Musk's company has made.

>

> - The huge booster that will [3]power New Glenn , the orbital rocket Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is developing, is designed to be reusable. That rocket is slated to launch for the first time next month.

>

> - ULA, the rocket operator owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is looking to recover the two engines that help power the first part of its [4]new rocket, Vulcan Centaur . The parent company for Arianespace, whose new vehicle is powered by an expendable booster, has also invested in a startup developing a reusable booster.

>

> - Last year, Rocket Lab USA used an engine that had flown before on a flight of its Electron rocket, and is working on a new vehicle, called Neutron, with a booster it could use again.

>

> - Jason Kim, chief executive of Firefly Aerospace, said the reusable vehicle the Texas-based company is developing with Northrop Grumman would give launch customers more flexibility and better pricing. "It really comes down to the affordability and the schedule," Kim said in a recent interview.

"We need reusability for rockets, just like we have reusability for cars, for airplanes, for bicycles, for horses," Musk [5]said in a video SpaceX posted earlier this year...



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-spacex-advantage-that-rivals-are-trying-to-emulate/ar-AA1t0aJQ

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-expects-starship-to-deliver-launches-at-a-fraction-of-current-costs-11644549926

[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-new-glenn-rocket-a328067

[4] https://www.wsj.com/business/vulvan-rocket-launch-ula-7062c379

[5] https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1745941814165815717

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from the Verge :

> Ever wondered why some of your Instagram videos tend to look blurry, while others are crisp and sharp? It's because, on Instagram, the quality of your video apparently depends on how many views it's getting.

>

> Here's part of Mosseri's explanation, from the video, which was [2]reposted by a Threads user today. "In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can ... But if something isn't watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views are in the beginning — we will move to a lower quality video. And then if it's watched again a lot then we'll re-render the higher quality video...."

>

> The shift in quality "isn't huge," [3]Mosseri said in response to another Threads user, who'd asked if that approach disadvantaged smaller creators. That's "the right concern," he told them, but said people interact with videos based on its content, not its quality. That's consistent with how Meta has described its approach before... Meta [4]wrote in a blog [post] that in order to conserve computing resources for the relatively few, most watched videos, it gives fresh uploads the fastest, most basic encoding. After a video "gets sufficiently high watch time," it receives a more robust encoding pass.

"It works at an aggregate level, not an individual viewer level," Mosseri [5]wrote later on Threads. "We bias to higher quality (more CPU intensive encoding and more expensive storage for bigger files) for creators who drive more views. It's not a binary theshhold, but rather a sliding scale."



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/27/24280968/instagram-video-quality-lower-for-less-popular-videos

[2] https://www.threads.net/@lindseygamble_/post/DBkEJmJvprg?xmt=AQGzMcoJTajdK4dS4gfBv7SJBfPs5h1TAx-Ma84165CHPg

[3] https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/DBmv6HuPOp-?xmt=AQGzMcoJTajdK4dS4gfBv7SJBfPs5h1TAx-Ma84165CHPg

[4] https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-scalable-video-processor-MSVP/#efficiency

[5] https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/DBmuQaIP-Q8?xmt=AQGzMcoJTajdK4dS4gfBv7SJBfPs5h1TAx-Ma84165CHPg

Communications of the ACM checks in on [1]the quest for room-temperature superconductivity . "Time and time again, physicists have announced breakthroughs that were later found to be irreproducible, in error, or even fraudulent."

But "The issue is once again simmering..."

> In January 2024, a group of researchers from Europe and South America announced they had achieved a milestone in room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductivity. Using Scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite with surface wrinkles, which formed line defects, they observed a room-temperature superconducting state. Their paper, [2]published in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies, has gained considerable attention in the scientific world... Although many in the scientific community remain incredulous, if valid, this development could help solve a key piece of the puzzle: how defects and wrinkles in a material such as scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) affect electrical properties and behavior within superconductive systems...

>

> "We haven't reached a point where there is a clear path to room temperature superconductivity because researchers are either overly enthusiastic or deceptive," said Elie Track, chief technology officer at HYPRES, Inc., an Elmsford, NY, company that develops and commercializes superconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. "People fail to check measurements and others can't reproduce their results. There is a lot of carelessness and sloppy science surrounding the space because people are so eager to achieve success." The team conducting research into scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite believe their discovery could tilt the search for practically useful room-temperature superconductivity in a favorable direction. They reported they were able to achieve one-dimensional superconductivity in pyrolytic graphite at temperatures as great as 300 degrees Kelvin (26.85 degrees Celsius), and at ambient pressure. Vinokur and physicist Maria Cristina Diamantini described the development as the first "unambiguous experimental evidence" for a global room temperature zero-resistance state. If true, the team's research could illuminate a path to new superconducting materials....

>

> Others remain skeptical, however. For example Alan Kadin [a technical consultant in the field and a former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rochester] pointed out that one of the key researchers for the project, Yakov Kopelevich, has been working in the field for two decades and, so far, "The results are not reproducible in other labs...Until someone else independently reproduces these results, I think we can safely ignore them," he argued...

>

> Yet as scientists continue to bang away at the superconducting challenge — including the possibility of using generative AI to explore materials and techniques — optimism is growing that a major breakthrough could occur.



[1] https://cacm.acm.org/news/room-temperature-superconductivity-heats-up/

[2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qute.202300230

When it comes to introducing liability for software products, "the EU and U.S. are taking very different approaches," [1]according to Lawfare 's cybersecurity newsletter . "While the U.S. kicks the can down the road, the EU is rolling a hand grenade down it to see what happens."

> Under the status quo, the software industry is extensively protected from liability for defects or issues, and this results in systemic underinvestment in product security. Authorities believe that by making software companies liable for damages when they peddle crapware, those companies will be motivated to improve product security... [T]he EU has chosen to set very stringent standards for product liability, apply them to people rather than companies, and let lawyers sort it all out.

>

> Earlier this month, the EU Council [2]issued a directive updating the EU's product liability law to treat software in the same way as any other product. [3]Under this law , consumers can claim compensation for damages caused by defective products without having to prove the vendor was negligent or irresponsible. In addition to personal injury or property damages, for software products, damages may be awarded for the loss or destruction of data. Rather than define a minimum software development standard, the directive sets what we regard as the highest possible bar. Software makers can avoid liability if they prove a defect was not discoverable given the "objective state of scientific and technical knowledge" at the time the product was put on the market.

>

> Although the directive is severe on software makers, its scope is narrow. It applies only to people (not companies), and damages for professional use are explicitly excluded. There is still scope for collective claims such as class actions, however. The directive isn't law itself but sets the legislative direction for EU member states, and they have two years to implement its provisions. The directive commits the European Commission to publicly collating court judgements based on the directive, so it will be easy to see how cases are proceeding.

>

> Major software vendors used by the world's most important enterprises and governments are publishing comically vulnerable code without fear of any blowback whatsoever. So yes, the status quo needs change. Whether it needs a hand grenade lobbed at it is an open question. We'll have our answer soon.



[1] https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-eu-throws-a-hand-grenade-on-software-liability

[2] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/10/10/eu-brings-product-liability-rules-in-line-with-digital-age-and-circular-economy/

[3] https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/goods/free-movement-sectors/liability-defective-products_en