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California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

tomshardware.com

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Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#411

Post by greyface- »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #387
greyface- wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what GP was talking about: entrenching a preference for one style of licensing over another. We all know what set of licenses the FOSS zealots would prefer for us to release code under, and those who release license-free or public domain software anyway typically do it with full knowledge of such arguments.

> entrenching a preference for one style of licensing over another. Sure, that's true. The intent of the law is to give a special carve-out for, in essence, Free and Open Source software. It seems clear that it was deliberately written so as not to include proprietary freeware, say. > We all know what set of licenses the FOSS zealots would prefer for us to release code under, and those who release license-free or pub…

> Like what?

djb's software is the canonical example here: qmail, djbdns, etc. Widely used; distributed without explicit license until 2007, and placed in the public domain thereafter. No legal disputes ever arose from this.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#412

Post by tbugrara »

inigyou wrote: post #336
BoxwoodSeed wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. The proper thing is to not have this at all in any shape or form.

So the proper thing to do is show hardcore porn to little kids? That's your take?

I'm confused. Parental controls for internet use have been around for decades.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#413

Post by throwaway19567 »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #305
DoctorOetker wrote: post #256

nobody is worried about about the arbitrarian aspects? What if you are interested in developing your own OS (a task that would have been monumental but may become trivial with LLMs in the future)? Why is the proper level the OS? Why not the browser or the hypervisor? Or perhaps manufacturer should remember your age? What if hardware is resold? We would need a hardware cadastre! A global hardware cadastre would unite…

The bill doesn't exempt Linux-based systems by name, if that's what you're thinking. It exempts any operating system that allows users to "copy, redistribute, and modify the software". It's a bit arbitrary in the sense that Microsoft and Apple could dodge the requirement by simply becoming open source, but that's not going to happen so it's not really a problem.

> It's a bit arbitrary in the sense that Microsoft and Apple could dodge the requirement by simply becoming open source, but that's not going to happen so it's not really a problem.

Considering macOS is already built on an OSS kernel (Darwin), and that Apple no longer charges any money for OS upgrades, I could imagine a world where Apple just shuffles some components around and announces macOS is now fully open source. Just so happens to require a lot of Apple chips with proprietary firmware, but hey that's for security reasons. Trusted enclave and all that. Nothing to see here. We'll take the exemptions for FOSS now please.

(Of course the real reason Apple won't do this is that they already have almost all of their user's ages via Apple ID, and being a trusted age-auth intermediary actually plays to their core strengths really well.)

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#414

Post by fodkodrasz »

some_random wrote: post #205

Hope you all are excited for the most important parts of the internet to be completely unusable by default on Linux in a few years.

Most if the "important" parts of the internet are unusable already by default, without an ad blocker.

As long the government sites, banks, etc. work (who already know my personal detail due to the nature of their services and the contract we have), nothing of value is lost, tbh. Including this site and this comment.

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