"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 18, 2026 15:37 UTC (Sun) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183)
In reply to: "SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services) by paulj
Parent article: A note for MXroute users

> I don't know, and I can't find, the history of the CRA and which groups pushed for it - before the European Commission formally introduced it as a proposal (the commission being the one and only body able to do that) - but if it's sensible and pro-consumer, there's a good chance it originated from or at least drew much of its early support from MEPs (prior to formal proposal).

Well sure. The process of lawmaking prior to the Commission publishing its proposal is nebulous, but there is structure there. The 2020 Cybersecurity strategy [1] already pointed out this was going to happen. The Cybersecurity Act (CSA) in 2019 already established an EU-wide cybersecurity framework focused largely on ICT and hardware products, making it clear that software would eventually be addressed as well.

In 2022 there was a public consultation [2] with 108 responses. And looking through those responses (they are all public), not a single Free Software/Open Source organisation (AFAICT) made a submission. So it's not entirely surprising that initial draft did not have much in that direction (only 3 mention the term "open source"). Free software 5 times, and Linux mentioned not once.

It's good that in the process we could get MEPs on our side to improve the legislation, but we need to get a lot better at adding to the process earlier. Limited early participation leads to limited early consideration.

[1] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/eus-cybe...
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your...

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"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 21, 2026 13:07 UTC (Wed) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

My experience is that MEPs are pretty good at listening. The more authoritarian proposals I know of always originated with governments. My assumptions, maybe biased by my experience, is that:

- The "good" pro-consumer, pro-individual rights stuff tends to have originated from MEPs (and their EP workings groups, via whatever other groups went to the trouble of lobbying them)

- The "bad", authoritarian, illiberal, anti-individual-rights stuff (mandatory IDs, criminal weight behind "DRM" copyright laws, etc.) tends to come from the governments (i.e., the council). Often these are laws they /desired/ previously to implement nationally, but could not get done because of national push-back. So they then go and push it through at a European level, and then later when they have to pass a law (if they even have to do that) to implement the directive they can counter any local opposition with "Oh, but it's not our fault, Europe passed it".

No doubt there are exceptions, but that's the pattern I've noticed, when there's been sufficiently "good" or "bad" European "law" or regulations for me to notice.