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…

  • PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world
    32·
    6 days 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.

    • Isthisreddit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      Keep that tinfoil hat close, I have a feeling Digital identification laws and ReadID technologies are actually moving the internet away from user anonymity, enabling a framework where users can be tied to real-world identities and easily sanctioned.

      Make a post on the internet that someone objects to? boom, you just lost access to all your bank accounts.

      I mean people connected to Peter Thiel are already bragging how they would love to do that

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
      3·
      6 days ago

      It’s physically impossible to “outlaw Linux”. That would mean outlawing the entirety of “The Cloud™”.

        • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          5 days ago

          How would you even legislate that? “You can only use Linux if you’re a registered business”? And how hard is it to register a one-person business in the US?

          “You can only use Linux if your business has over X number of employees”? So make a non-profit business that “hires” anyone who wants to use Linux.

  • wallwood@lemmy.ml
    2·
    4 days ago

    Great This could drive more people to linux than ever Especially if the law will eventually require users to verify their age with an ID. I wonder if big tech will still be this exited about implementing age verification once they start seeing people ditching their softwares in favor of FOSS alternatives!

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    Sensible laws? That’s not the world I grew up in. What the hell is happening.

    Punish users. That’s the only way they’ll learn.

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      Linux users are incredible in their belief that issues of privacy, security, or data autonomy will push the masses away from what they’re used to (OSX/Windows, Facebook/Reddit, etc) and towards better options (Linux, Lemmy, Mastodon, etc)

      No, mate, absolutely nothing is gonna happen to Windows. It’s gonna be perfectly fine. If we’re lucky, there will be a 1-3% dip in user base towards Linux, but there’s exactly 0% chance for a mass exodus that would make the upper management stop and think for a second.

      • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
        2·
        6 days ago

        I think they were assuming that people would use linux to dodge these restrictions. Ex. a teen who can’t use a site on windows/ios might boot linux in an attempt to make it work. But as others have pointed out, it’s more likely that sites will just blanket-flag a linux useragent as being used by a child to be safe. And then a linux user changing their useragent to get around this will then be hw attestation challenged like any other OS. So yeah, it’s just going to make it more inconvenient to use an open system.