Off-topic obviously, but I thought this might interest some people here.
Manufacturers are also required to provide operating system updates within six months of the source code becoming available — a bar that Samsung would have failed to meet with its recent One UI 7 rollout.
Although 6 months is longer than I’d like, this is, in my opinion, the best part of these new requirements and a great step in the right direction.
I don’t think its off topic. Maintaining device integrity falls under security. Making sure your battery works and all parts of the phone are repairable is part of hardware Denial-of-Service mitigation from attacks coming from the… manufacturer because of planned obsolescence.
Exactly. This is a welcome change.
I don’t understand the 6 month code requirement.
One UI 7 source code isn’t available, you can merely install it - not see its source code.
I’m gonna be honest I appreciate news like these so no worries!
My comment is that It has been proposed for a while I was just wondering when it will be passed or at the very least maybe it will go to the commission and then pass if it will?
So yeah.
I really like this change honestly, from the GDPR to the DMA and then this, amazing.
I also wish to see the EU battle digital content like I proposed initially only to not finish the proposal to send to the EU but I’ll consider doing it but if people wanna contribute it’s appreciated.
Battle digital content as in, beyond video games licenses (which is what Stop Killing Games is focused on).
Here are the relevant parts of the law:
COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2023/1670
ANNEX II
1.2. Design for reliability
(6) Operating system updates:(c) security updates or corrective updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;
(d) functionality updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 6 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;
My understanding then is that Samsung has 4 months for security updates and 6 months for functionality updates from when the Android/AOSP releases for those updates become available. As for Apple they have 4 / 6 months from when they release the update to ship it to all supported devices.
There is also a requirement for the secure erasure of encryption keys which is positive to see:
(6) Requirements for preparation for reuse
(a) encrypt by default, using a random encryption key, the user data stored in the internal storage of the device;
(b) include a software function, that resets the device to its factory settings and erases securely by default the encryption key and generates a new one;