#1 Yesterday 19:08:06

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 449

Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

Because this is going to affect Debian and everything upstream of it (including BL)

hhh

Gaucho

From: High in the Custerdome

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 16,764

Website

Re: Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

^ Only if you live in California, and no way they can enforce this on Linux. Not yet, but it is coming.

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I don't care what you do at home. Would you care to explain?

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,839

Re: Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

^ Only if you live in California, and no way they can enforce this on Linux. Not yet, but it is coming.

Texas and Utah have something similar. Colorado, Illinois, and New York are following the California path.

MidnightBSD ha already amended their license in the readme file:

Residents of any countries, states or territories that require age verification
for operating systems, are not authorized to use MidnightBSD. This list currently includes
Brazil, effective March 17, 2026, California, effective January 1, 2027, and
will include Colorado, Illinois and New York provided they pass their currently
proposed legislation.  We urge users to write their representatives to get
these laws repealed or replaced.

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You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,839

Re: Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

Because this is going to affect Debian and everything upstream of it (including BL)

Enter a fake age - April 1, 2000 - during install.

Any idea how CA plans to enforce this?

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You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

WizardofCOR

Member

Registered: 2023-07-28

Posts: 40

Re: Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

Reddit is having a field day on this slippery slope legislation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … state_age/

And I agree, it seems pretty unenforceable and/or easy to bypass.  Unless of course they somehow enforce an online activation verification in/after the setup routine.  But then there's also the question of Live OS's (Knoppix, Tails, etc.) and how this could even (inadvertently) spur underground development of "pirate" OS's.

"Can't stop the signal, Mal..."

But yeah, the "surveillance state" direction of all this is a bit worrying, though. 
Will be interesting to watch, certainly.

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Just a dude playing a dude, disguised as another dude...

trinidad

Member

From: Chicago & Southeast WI

Registered: 2021-04-10

Posts: 48

Website

Re: Do You Have An (Age Verified) Loicence For That OS?

This is currently unenforcable in an active sense, that is pursuable in any technical way on user communities. However it gives prosecutors another bit of leverage after an arrest when pursuing porn vendors, child abuse and neglect perps, etc. When it comes to technical legislation one hand always bites the other. A computer is inanimate and therefore not protected by any civil rights and whatever is on it is absolutely subject to scrutiny from any source. Trying to wrap up modern technical devices and usages in civil rights issues is a straw man legally. So is the law itself except when applied contingently after an arrest.
TC

Last edited by trinidad (Today 13:12:00)