Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Store birth date in systemd for age verification

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 129 posts

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#31

Post by aleph_minus_one »

bitwize wrote: post #20
miohtama wrote: post #2

This should be the time for open-source developers to use their common sense to decide whether we should push back. If California wants to create its own Protect the children operating system, it should bear the cost and responsibility for this alone, and not export any of the sketchy political agenda to the wider open source community.

It's the law. If you live in the United States, and a minor in California uses your OS that didn't check age, you could be liable for up to $2500 per occurrence. That can add up quickly if California schoolkids discover your OS does an end run around the law. When ruin is the alternative, compliance becomes non-negotiable.

> It's the law

"There is no justice in following unjust laws." - Aaron Swartz (Guerilla Open Access Manifesto)

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#32

Post by jmclnx »

Interesting solution and I really expected systemd would be were this age validation would be placed if distros what it.

But if this becomes a thing in Linux for the distro I use (doubtful), I will abandon Linux after 30+ years.

I am rather confident OpenBSD will ignore this law and I expect other BSDs will to. If not, back to DOS :)

Note, I have a BSD on a coupld of old laptops for testing reasons. I test what I write in the BSDs to help find issues, that works well.

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#35

Post by bravetraveler »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #34
bravetraveler wrote: post #7

Where can I drop a file to always return 1969

> Where can I drop a file to always return 1969 I am out of the loop: what is so special about 1969 concerning age verification?

I doubt I can do the observation justice, my mind went there thinking 'a moment before the Unix Epoch' and the more... well-traveled meme: 'haha funny number [dropping the leading 19]'. Any number would've worked just as well, it's not significant. I really just wanted to express my participation in this, if at all, likely won't be in good faith.

That said... an option for 'I could have declared an age/birth date but chose not to' seems preferable. I was talking about poisoning but this could be more productive. Any attestation would reasonably fail, sure, but it sends a potentially-meaningful signal [to someone].

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#38

Post by aleph_minus_one »

bravetraveler wrote: post #35
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where can I drop a file to always return 1969 I am out of the loop: what is so special about 1969 concerning age verification?

I doubt I can do the observation justice, my mind went there thinking 'a moment before the Unix Epoch' and the more... well-traveled meme: 'haha funny number [dropping the leading 19]' . Any number would've worked just as well, it's not significant. I really just wanted to express my participation in this, if at all, likely won't be in good faith. That said... an option for 'I could have declared an age/birth date bu…

> 'a moment before the Unix Epoch'

OK, "I am so old that already lived before the UNIX epoch even started" (or a year which breaks systems that cannot handle times before the UNIX epoch) sounds plausible. :-)

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#39

Post by iamnothere »

nazgulsenpai wrote: post #36

Will unincorporated distros who don't comply be illegal to use in the areas passing these laws? This isn't "obscenity" -- isn't there a first amendment argument for these projects?

There is a strong 1A argument, and one such law has already been defeated: https://netchoice.org/netchoice-wins-permanent-block-of-loui...

Bernstein v. United States set a precedent that has not yet been overturned.

Re: Store birth date in systemd for age verification

#40

Post by burnt-resistor »

dirtikiti wrote: post #37

"protecting" children by providing specific ages to data harvesters. as per usual, liberal policy doing the exact opposite thing they claim it does.

It's not a liberal policy, it's an illiberal one bending the knee to feudal techbros.
Post reply on HN