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submitted 2 weeks ago by davel@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

They’re basically minimum-viable products that by design can be used to violate the law in California when the Act goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

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[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 146 points 2 weeks ago

By the way, the current age verification madness is a coordinated lobbying campaign by Meta

[-] EonNShadow@pawb.social 33 points 1 week ago

One more reason for me to fucking hate Zuckerberg.

Add it to the pile at this point...

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 8 points 1 week ago

Zuckerberg and Thiel.

[-] org@lemmy.org 29 points 1 week ago

To avoid any responsibility for them not moderating.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

It's more about ad revenue. Advertisers don't want to pay for bots to read their ads.

[-] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

Ads were always a terrible way to fund the internet.

Not to rant, but some things are so cheap or so important (or both) that it's foolish not to operate off an endowment system. The internet, journalism, science -- the information foundation of the modern world has to be independent for a stable society. Like, yeah, capitalism bad and establishing an initial investment is asking a lot of people's finances, but surely operating independently is worth it?

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[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 37 points 2 weeks ago

Can someone eli5 the idea? I don't get it, even after reading the page. But now I want one.

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 41 points 2 weeks ago

They're breaking evil age verification laws on purpose as civil disobedience with cheap hardware

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 20 points 2 weeks ago

OK, the disobedience was the part I didn't get. Thank you!

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

Insofar as part availability isn't insurmountably impacted this also constitutes functional resistance to all manor of censorship and surveillance. If you can code, test on one of these

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

I can, but I probably won't, because my backlog is full and overflowing. But it is cheap... damn.

[-] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's protestware, which is great.

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago

I agree, but now I am torn because I'm protesting the US as a whole right now.

[-] jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago

California is adding a requirement for age verification for operating systems (or something like that) so each one of these violates that law by booting into linux.

[-] dan@upvote.au 15 points 2 weeks ago

Not just California. Several other US states are considering (or will be rolling out) similar laws, and Brazil's version has already rolled out this month.

[-] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 6 points 2 weeks ago

This was the part I got. But I wondered how that would help?

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[-] brokenwing@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 week ago

Wait are they planing to fine non-age verification compliant devices?

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[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 weeks ago

Brilliant. I'd like to see how the very uninformed legislators deal with this. They will have to publically re-argue first principles

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[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 12 points 1 week ago

AB 1043 passed the California Assembly 76–0 and the Senate 38–0. Not a single legislator voted against it.

1798.503. (a) A person that violates this title shall be subject to an injunction and liable for a civil penalty of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per affected child for each negligent violation or not more than seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per affected child for each intentional violation

This device does not collect, store, or transmit the age of its user. This is intentional.

Is there any reason to believe they won't want to make an example out of intentional violators?

[-] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

They probably will, but I think the intentional violators are intending to make a spectacle out of it. I suspect California Voters will have it repealed in short order, but in the mean time the world should probably ruthlessly mock and isolate them.

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[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I don't know, maybe not looking stupid

[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago

In whose eyes? They have lobbyists backing them, and a general public who doesn't know any better, or care to know.

Exposing the stupidity is a great goal, running headfirst into the "Who will think of the children!1!!" wall... not so much.

[-] msspwn@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Amazing. Where are the build instructions

[-] pglpm@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago

Brilliant! 💪

What in leftist infighting hell is even happening in this comment section?

[-] Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

For some people the world is black and white, I think that law is considered bad by everyone, but for some people complaying to state regulation is a crime against humanity itself.

It is either puppies or genocide, no in-between, so adding two lines of code for json support of an age field in a systemd module warrants you to be publicly shamed, called names and probably harrassed irl.

The guy probably just wanted to be able to continue using linux at work, and without that crap he will have to go back to windows

[-] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

It is either puppies or genocide, no in-between

puppy genocide?

Radical centrism

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this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
282 points (98.6% liked)

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