AB 1856 excludes open-source operating systems from the upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act.
    • vas@lemmy.ml
      2·
      6 days ago

      According to this website https://github.com/BryanLunduke/DoesItAgeVerify

      System76 also planned to implement age verification should the law pass. They did not claim that they’ll relocate or re-register their company legally, or request their users upon installation to not use the OS in California/Colorado, or anything like that actually.

      I think that’s noteworthy. I personally consider it half a fight. Like, you create noise, but if boss says it’s OK, you say “OK, you’re the boss after all”.

      • vas@lemmy.ml
        2·
        6 days ago

        Also makes System76’s standing a little bit weaker in my eyes. Still *obviously* among the good forces, but they nevertheless gave in to the pressure around and were ready to comply.

        … *slightly offtopic* I hate what the US / Donald Trump / Money power is doing with people and companies…

        • horus_son_of_isis@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          I find it interesting that the Greedy Old Pedo party is so willing to give up their anonymous gay porn surfing for a quick buck from telecoms. Then again, they have never been good at big picture or predicting completely forseeable outcomes.

      • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
        1·
        6 days ago

        I mean they live and work there, and all business and contracts are done there. This is not an individual who can react and just go to a different country to live on, its affecting everyone in the company and all partners. Off course they have to comply if the law goes through. I personally don’t blame them that they are prepaired for such a case, and do not downplay their work and fight because of that.

        • vas@lemmy.ml
          1·
          6 days ago

          Of course it’s affecting everything. I’m not claiming that they’re evil. But either them or their positioning, seems to be somewhat weak when given pressure. They’re not standing on solid ground so to speak.

  • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
    25·
    6 days ago

    Translation: there’s no way to force open source software to follow the law as it was written.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
      14·
      6 days ago

      It would wildly fuck with enterprise systems because you would have to have a way to verify age for the users of EVERY system. The way it is now you would have to verify the age of users of iot and smart devices. You have to have id to turn on your lights or use the refrigerator.

  • snrkl@lemmus.orgEnglish
    22·
    6 days ago

    Whilst this would be better than blanket age verification, I feel it’s a mediocre outcome for the wrong fight.

    Rather than taking a carve out for FOSS, the right fight is to get the online anonymity ban age verification legislation taken out completely.

    If we let ourselves be satisfied with a carve out for those of us who are technically literate enough to sidestep early implementations anyway, we let the status quo change, until eventually they will come back for FOSS with the justification:

    “well, EVERYONE ELSE submits to age verification, why should FOSS be any different?!”

    or more likely:

    “${scaryThreat} now uses FOSS to commit ${heinousCrime} against ${peopleWeSuddenlyCareAboutForPoliticalCapital} so we HAVE to protect the kids on FOSS now too!! #thoughtsAndPrayers #wontSomebodyThinkOfTheChildren”

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
      11·
      6 days ago

      Also: << the nerds aren’t going to do any of this shit, so… let’s look like the good guys by exempting them so we don’t look terrible when the nerds show how obviously this is all security theater >>

  • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    6 days ago

    California should make Windows as annoying to use as possible so more people switch to Linux

  • bonding259@lemmy.ml
    6·
    6 days ago

    This is only IF Gavin Newsom signs it. There’s no reason to believe he would. It’s not like he’s famous for following what the people of California want.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
    91·
    7 days ago

    This is good news. But why make this distinction? Why is this ok for FOSS but not other platforms?

    Also private platforms are more likely to abuse this information.

    • MisterD@lemmy.ca
      6·
      6 days ago

      Because this is temporary. FOSS OS’ will be forced to comply in 10-15years max if the law stands.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
      5·
      7 days ago

      Well, politics isn’t about finding the one principle to rule them all. The folks/companies that find restricting access to children important, probably don’t particularly care about some Linux devices being excluded. And other folks/companies find not restricting their Linux server really important, so that’s a compromise that can be made.

      I imagine, they landed on specifically open-source being excluded as the more abstract rule, because open-source in particular has a problem here.
      Anyone can download open-source software and run it. In most cases, there is no central backend, which could handle age verification.

      And even if there is, it’s not really financially viable to offer that for anyone who downloads the software for free. Requiring payment to access the binaries or the source code would also effectively kill the open-source ecosystem, which is also not in the interest of most people.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
      21·
      7 days ago

      Because FOSS isn’t the problem. The problem the law seeks to address is profit-driven big businesses like Meta and Fortnite who don’t care to provide any protections for kids or actively target them in their manipulative behaviour, hence targeting the laws at the actual problem (non-FOSS software).

      • Shanmugha@lemmy.world
        51·
        6 days ago

        Nah. The problem the law seeks to address is more money for the rich and more power for the psychopaths. Actual care for children looks nothing close to this

        • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
          6·
          7 days ago

          I don’t think that is a problem for Microsoft, especially because they would want your ID and age, tracking you as much as possible already. Also you don’t just change the Kernel just like that, there are licenses attached, drivers and other stuff. From technical point of view, in current implementation it is probably impossible. Let alone Microsoft would face issues with compatibility. If we put the technical difficulties aside, I don’t even think Microsoft is against this law and pretty much wants it.

          • fdagpigj@lemmy.ml
            1·
            7 days ago

            They could just change the license of their codebase, if that’s what they wanted to do. No way in hell they care about users enough though, and probably most windows users still don’t care enough even about this to jump ship.

        • chewypoops@lemmy.world
          3·
          7 days ago

          What expense? Adding one more thing to track about you, especially something they already know and essentially just need to verify, cannot be that expensive.