California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt

[u/CackleRooster]

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-lawmakers-unanimously-pass-linux-exemption-from-age-verification-law-software-distributed-under-the-gpl-mit-bsd-and-apache-licenses-are-exempt

[u/aliendude5300]

Great, now just do every other state. 49 to go

[u/5eppa → u/aliendude5300]

I thought they were the only one that has passed a bill requiring it.

[u/GimpyGeek → u/5eppa]

Unfortunately they are not. I'm not sure about others but I know IL has as well.

[u/5eppa → u/GimpyGeek]

Darn, I knew a few other states had similar bills introduced but thought they hadn't yet passed. Ugh, here we go again.

[u/aliendude5300 → u/GimpyGeek]

Colorado as well. And there was a bill introduced to the House of Representatives to make it a federal law.

[u/billdietrich1 → u/aliendude5300]

Is this a "win" ? Okay, you won't have to have age signal in your OS. So what will sites use instead ? Demand ID ? That's worse.

[u/GreedySecurity8030]

Thank god.

[u/NotTryingToConYou → u/GreedySecurity8030]

Devil's advocate: They're only doing this to silence the largest noisemakers. Once this exemption is in, most the noise will go away and they'll be able to pass the law that violates most peoples privacy.

I still think this is a step in the right direction regardless

[u/jerwong → u/NotTryingToConYou]

I agree. I think this is great, but I don't want just the squeaky wheel to get the grease. I want them to just stop with this crap.

[u/acdcfanbill → u/NotTryingToConYou]

Also, it's likely a bunch of 'official' apps or webpages that you need to use like banking sites or stores will simply refuse to work if it can't detect age verification so FLOSS will need to add it anyway or their users will no longer be able to participate.

[u/jeezfrk → u/GreedySecurity8030]

Precisely. They are looking for a corporate powerhouse to make money off kids.

Free software (software with a forkable, unowned core) is not as able to corral huge money from targeting kids.

At the least ... A kid friendly version can be made to compete with those who do, very easily.

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/GreedySecurity8030]

Thank the people who actually organized and lobbied for this instead of whining on the Internet about it.

[u/Userwerd → u/AnsibleAnswers]

Apparently system 76 did alot of work on this exemption for their home state, not sure if they were involved in California.

[u/billdietrich1 → u/GreedySecurity8030]

Is this a "win" ? Okay, you won't have to have age signal in your OS. So what will sites use instead ? Demand ID ? That's worse.

[u/Fambank]

The year of the Linux desktop is nigh!

[u/Delta-9-]

It would be hilarious if this pushed Microsoft to open-source Windows.

[u/Elf_Paladin → u/Delta-9-]

I want what this guy is smoking

[u/AlterTableUsernames → u/Delta-9-]

Who would want that accumulation of human slop? I mean, here and there might be something valuable, like for example RDP, but otherwise? They can't even make settings a nice UX. The entire codebase will be a terrible mess of spaghetti. 

[u/HeavyCaffeinate → u/AlterTableUsernames]

NTFS implementation 

[u/borg_6s → u/Delta-9-]

I wouldn't use Windows even if it were open source

[u/sapphired_808 → u/Delta-9-]

"ReactOS"? not accurately from MS

[u/Killzo]

big win here:

In addition, lawmakers inserted a new provision prohibiting anyone from requesting an age signal from an OS provider or app store unless required by law. That closes off potential abuse of the age API that could have led to it being used as a general-purpose data collection channel even when age verification wasn’t required.

[u/Dlight98 → u/Killzo]

Oh I haven't seen anyone mention this part

[u/UraniumDisulfide → u/Killzo]

Oh, well as long as they pinky promise not to collect our data then it’s fine
(Better than that provision not existing, but it’d be even better for that api to not exist to begin with)

[u/billdietrich1 → u/Killzo]

Is this a "win" ? Okay, you won't have to have age signal in your OS. So what will sites use instead ? Demand ID ? That's worse.

[u/fellipec]

And yet, some boot licking devs run to implement it in the first week.

Suckers

[u/metcalsr]

Way to effectively codify what FOSS licenses can be used for OSs.

[u/trekxtrider]

This might be what pushes folks to Linux.

[u/NotTryingToConYou → u/trekxtrider]

I agree it will be a motivator but I dont think it will be anywhere significant enough to move the numbers. The vast majority of windows and mac users don't care about this. Most of them already provide PII when signing up for their apple and microsoft accounts

[u/oshaboy]

Doesn't that exemption prove the point that it was never about child safety. What's preventing a minor from dual booting for porn and other illicit content?

[u/jonesmz]

I'm so surprised by how many people are happy about this.

What this means in practice:

1. linux / opensource loses standing to sue to get the law invalidated under e.g. free speech grounds, because they are no longer directly subject to the law.

2. All major websites will require age validation / verification / whatever flavor of the week to access, and linux -- not being subject to the law, won't be allowed to access the site

3. This substantially reduces people's willingness to use linux and open source, because why would you use linux if you cant access your favorite websites?

Ultimately, this is a worst-case scenario.

Without this exemption, big players in the linux world would have had motivation and standing to sue California over this law, and it could have been overturned entirely.

Now we're basically stuck with the bullshit.

[u/Sibexico]

Most people don't care about all of it at all. When I'm trying to explain, they even cant understand where's the problem. So looks like we can't do nothing but work on darknet and alternative anonymous platforms. It's nothing to do with clearnet anymore.