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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)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/linux@programming.dev
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[–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

What if an asteroid flies into the Earth and splits it in two?

Edit: I'll add more now that I can sit down and focus.

Age attestation has existed for longer than I've been alive. Every service with an age requirement (must be 18+ to view, must be 13+ to play, must be 8+ with parent permission or 18+ to play, etc) used user attestation. The law is stupid because:

  1. Age attestation doesn't restrict. It only exists for services to cover their own asses legally.
  2. Age verification would be required to restrict access, but age verification costs money that MS/Apple/Google/etc wouldn't make back (maybe MS but Android and Mac OS are free).
  3. Linux exists and can bypass it all anyway and often isn't subject to CA's laws.

This law isn't age verification. It's just politicians being technically illiterate imbeciles.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago (1 child)

    That's why I said "Age Verification Authority stamp" versus age attestation. How long before tech giants are able to convince Congress that the only way to keep kids safe is for them to issue certificates following identity verification? It won't be long before Google phones won't let you install APKs easily without a dev certificate which requires submitting your information to Google. It's not farfetched to say. It's a wet dream for politicians that want to be able to track everyone everywhere, too. How long before motherboards can't be sold without it? How long before building your own PC isn't an option? It's already the norm for most hardware to have closed source code somewhere. That's generally accepted as something that's or worth working around except for the most dedicated of free software enthusiasts.

    This is all super important shit. Blowing it off like "this is just tech illiteracy" doesn't do anyone any favors. We aren't going to be able to fight these things by laughing about it. With that mentality, an asteroid might be the only way to actually stop this shit from happening.

    The trend in America is towards a conservative, puritanical, surveillance state. Flock cameras everywhere. Flock execs looking at children's gymnastics classes in my state, while they say it will help find missing children. Abusers saying it will stop abuse. My state passed a porn ban and has had heartbeat abortion bans. We're not going to get any wins by blowing this shit off and laughing about it. We're not going to beat this shit if everyone wants to laugh and think everything is a slippery slope fallacy or just a random bullshit comment.

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  • [–] 0 points 15 hours ago

    So what exactly are you saying to do here? Because I already write to my representatives and advocate against these things. The reality is that lawmakers don't care what people want, only what's going to make them the most money.

    In any case, the point I was making was that this law isn't age verification, and spending energy fighting against this when you could be battling the myriad actual age verification bills and laws is a waste of energy. In CA, there's also the 3D printer BS around scanning and blocking print jobs.

    There's also the ALPR issue, data centers, and so on that have shown that representatives would rather put up a democratic facade than actually listen to their constituents.

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