To Our Dedicated Community Worldwide,
I am writing to you today with a critical update on the necessary measures we are taking to ensure the continued freedom and long-term viability of our beloved Open Source project and the Gnoppix Linux distribution.
As a project committed to privacy, anonymity, and the principles of unrestricted open source development, we have monitored the evolving legislative landscape in the European Union (EU) with serious concern. Due to the significant legal uncertainty, potential liabilities, and administrative burdens imposed by several forthcoming EU regulations, we have been advised by our legal counsel that we must proactively sever all relationships with EU jurisdictions and their member states.
This action is essential to protect our volunteer contributors, our core principles, and the continuity of our services from potential arbitrariness and restrictions imposed by the EU.
Why We Are Taking This Action
The following key EU regulatory initiatives pose an unacceptable risk to our non-commercial, volunteer-driven model:
- EU Liability for Defective Products Directive (PLD) / Software Liability (Effective ∼2026): While intended to address commercial software, the vague scope and uncertain interpretation of what constitutes “commercial activity” create a risk of strict liability claims against our project and individual contributors, which we cannot accept.
- EU Proposed Regulation on CSAM Detection (the so-called “Chat Control”): This proposal threatens to mandate the implementation of monitoring mechanisms or backdoors. This directly undermines our commitment to End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) and the fundamental privacy of our users. We will never compromise our services by providing backdoors or third-party access.
- EU Digital Services Act (DSA): Compliance with the extensive moderation, reporting, and regulatory requirements of the DSA is beyond the manpower and financial capacity of our volunteer-led organization.
- EU AI Act: Potential restrictions and compliance mandates within the AI Act could fundamentally conflict with our commitment to unrestricted free speech and open innovation within the project.
Phase 1 & 2 Actions Taken
You may have already noticed the first step, and we are now implementing Phase 2:
- Phase 1: Infrastructure Relocation: We have successfully completed the relocation of our server infrastructure and services outside of the European Union jurisdiction.
- Phase 2: Full Disengagement from EU States: To complete the mitigation of legal risk, we are implementing comprehensive measures to prevent any legal or financial nexus with the EU:
- Access Confirmation: When accessing Project services, you will be required to confirm that you are not a resident of an EU member state, even if using a VPN or other obfuscation tools.
- Refused Donations: Any donation originating from an EU country, regardless of amount, will be refused and blocked. We cannot accept financial relationships tied to the EU.
- Service Restriction: We cannot maintain a relationship with any users residing in an EU member state.
We understand these steps are severe, and we apologize for the impact they will have on our EU-based community members. This decision was not made lightly, but it is the necessary course of action to protect the greater global community and the core values of this project.
For all our beloved users in the rest of the world, our commitment remains unchanged: you can still rely on us for the highest standards of privacy and anonymous services, and continue to enjoy the Gnoppix Linux distribution as always.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Sincerely,
amu - Founder Gnoppix Linux