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How Linux developers defeated the new OS age-verification laws (blazetrends.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.world
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The coordinated effort worked. When lawmakers finalized Colorado SB26-051, they added Section 6-30-105(e) to the text. This specific clause waives compliance for operating systems and applications distributed under licenses that allow copying, modifying, and redistributing without platform-imposed technical restrictions. Why the Section 6-30-105(e) Exemption Protects Decentralized Tech

This exemption establishes a formal legislative precedent for the tech industry. It legally shields free and open-source operating systems from hardware-level age attestation laws that closed ecosystems like iOS and Windows will soon have to follow.

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[–] 149 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It's unenforceable on Linux. A Linux user can simply remove or modify any code running on their machine. Fedora, Debian, and Arch can't make a user verify their age any more than they can force you to use Gnome. It's kinda the whole point of FOSS.

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  • [–] 29 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    There is a very easy way to force linux users to enforce this. However, I won't give it away here, because as far as I can tell the current law makers are clueless.

    And I don't want to give them clues.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I'm already seeing that in a year or two, we're getting blocked on websites or electron applications because of age verification just like in android with Google Play Services. Like use age verification software or get blocked for 99% the internet.

    They don't even need to turn it into law.

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  • [–] 23 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Honestly the faster they try to lock us out of the web the sooner we can get a second, freer web with card games and prostitution.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    "Like putting too much air in a balloon!"

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    Whatever device based verification those websites or electron apps were communicating with can be spoofed in a system where you have complete control.

    Games are cracked in weeks at most, don't you think that whatever secure communication is established won't be cracked lightning fast by the whole FOSS community? Once the "secure communication" between local apps is broken, a third package can mitm that shit easily. It's a local environment.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I'm going to argue that you share it because one thing you can count on is very determined nerds to defeat it.

    Every time legislators tried to enforce some sort of dystopian thing, developers saw it as damage and routed around it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    You're not wrong, security through obscurity eventually fails. In this case however, time counts, the longer it can be cut off, the more chance of some sanity returning, of backlash building politically. The time to route around is after a law is made, preferably as flawed a law as possible.

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