California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt
www.tomshardware.com
AB 1856 excludes open-source operating systems from the upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act.

Let’s hope other states follow suit…

  • chgxvjh [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    4 hours ago

    AB 1856 doesn’t explicitly say that repos aren’t app stores, but a store’s main obligation under the law is to request an age signal from the user’s OS provider and pass it to developers; an exempt open-source OS produces no signal.

    So what’s the outcome of that? Are covered applications and application store to treat users as children when they don’t get a signal from the OS?

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    10·
    6 hours ago

    Wait… So if Linux doesn’t have the api (sorry, the “signal” 🙄) how will sites that require it respond? What does it mean to be “exempt” - every user is considered to be an adult?

      • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
        7·
        3 hours ago

        Ehhh, honestly I’m thinking it’s more likely they’ll block you. That’s how these things tend to go in this age.

        Kind of like how more and more of the Internet just outright blocks vpns.

        • djdarren@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          40 minutes ago

          This is my growing experience of using GrapheneOS.

          Mostly everything works just fine. But certain apps don’t, because they’ve made a choice to use Play store integrity. And there are more and more of them, including the UK government ID app. So I can’t use my phone to verify my identity because I use a version of Android that’s more secure than Google’s.

          And yeah, I can see it going this way with Linux. If you can’t be verified using macOS, Windows, or ChromeOS (or whatever the new thing is) tools, then you become a second class digital citizen.

            • djdarren@piefed.socialEnglish
              2·
              4 minutes ago

              And why we need people who can hammer it home to our political classes that it’s vitally important not to be stuck in an Apple/Google/Microsoft trap.

  • PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world
    171·
    8 hours ago

    My tinfoil hat is telling me they’ll do this to make an outlaw of Linux and block it from services and sites. I hope my hat is wrong.