California vs. Linux. Anyone interested in a Canada Linux?
The following is a bit of a rant regarding a law in California that takes effect 1st January 2027 that will require that ALL OSs (yes, including Linux and the BSDs) do age verification on all users. A bad law for a number of reasons. If an 11 year old knows that if they lie about their age there will be some benefit and effectively no penalty for lying, will they lie... Duh... YES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQLdDR-hJpc It is reported that the MidnightBSD people have updated their license terms, revoking their license in (and only in) California effective 1st January 2027, details here: https://ostechnix.com/midnightbsd-excludes-california-digital-age-assurance-... I gather that Colorado is considering a similar law to California. I assume that most (all?) the people on this mailing list live outside the USA, thus the above law doesn't apply to us. But what happens when a distro who has a presence (a commercial presence or just volunteer presence) in California (and maybe Colorado) decides to start changing the distro. to try to accommodate USA state law(s)? So, is it time to consider Canada (or at least non-USA) specific Linux distributions? Colin.
From: Colin McGregor via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
I assume that most (all?) the people on this mailing list live outside the USA, thus the above law doesn't apply to us. But what happens when a distro who has a presence (a commercial presence or just volunteer presence) in California (and maybe Colorado) decides to start changing the distro. to try to accommodate USA state law(s)? So, is it time to consider Canada (or at least non-USA) specific Linux distributions?
We already had this kind of thing with software patents: not in Europe, but yes in US and Canada. Yes it is a pain. Maybe we just change the login screen for this one.
On 2026-03-01 09:56, Colin McGregor via Talk wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQLdDR-hJpc Too much rant. We already have such "API". Just create ~/.age, echo age=18 > ~/.age date -d '18 years ago' +birthday=%F > ~/.age OS doesn't have to do anything. App is the one who has read it.
participants (3)
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Colin McGregor -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
William Park