Ariadne Conill 🐰
a fairly detailed analysis of the california "age assurance bill" by fellow #AlpineLinux contributor @RunxiYu
in practice i think it does not really concern #AlpineLinux
the intent of this law is clearly to go after operating systems with app stores
with that said, it would be hilarious to slap a "not for use in California" label on the website and watch gleefully as silicon valley realizes they just shot themselves in the foot
anyway #pkgconf users can use
X-ESRB-Rating or whatever, I guess. 🙃
Josh Bressers@ariadne bUt tEh cHiLdReNz!!!!
fraggLe!
Alex the Snep! 
@ariadne i mean imho its unenforceable just like the 3d printer thing requiring code to be scanned for nefarious parts. with the state of how the industry is, its just not possible to enforce draconian stuff like this on open source hardware and software
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LisPi
Demi Marie Obenour@ariadne what about Linux distros with GNOME Software or KDE Discover preinstalled?
a kilo of saucepans (rakslice)@ariadne I think if that was the intent of the law, they would not have included language like "any other general purpose computing device" and "publicly available internet website".
I'll definitely grant you that maybe mainstream mobile app stores are the only examples they thought about (and even then perhaps not very much)
JdeBPIt concerns #AlpineLinux the same as it concerns every other Linux-based operating system that has a package management utility that talks to a public WWW site.
As I said at https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116156019252249071, and as @RunxiYu has also said, the statute as written covers all such systems. (It's an Act now, by the way, not a Bill.) Alpine Linux has a covered application store.
Here, for example, is what 'publicly available internet website' apk as the 'software application' uses to 'facilitate the download' of the third-party rustc 'application' from the 'store' in Alpine Linux on the aforementioned #mainframes used by the aforementioned naughty 16-year-olds in #California:
https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.23/main/s390x/
Yes, #CaliforniaLaw as written is this expansive. Yes, the legislators did not even consider how the BSDs and Linux-based operating systems work. None of the objectors apparently even mentioned how these work.
Bobulous 
@JdeBP @ariadne @RunxiYu Can the operating system distributors declare that users in the state of California are not permitted to download, install, or use the software?
From what I've understood of it, I have to agree that this act does sound like one of the dumbest proposals of recent times, almost certain to be totally ineffective at protecting children. But lawmakers and mainstream journalists seem to be technically illiterate.
See the widely publicized announcement by the developer of #MidnightBSD, which precipitated a lot of people, including me, into looking at the actual law.
https://nitter.net/midnightbsd/status/2027101491211718765
The only people concerned with free software, apparently, as the bill made its way through the #California legislature, were Oakland Privacy, and they were only interested in 'gratis' free software on the Google and Apple Stores and the impacts on its development.
The various committee analyses are on that legislature page, and they give the objectors's objections. I have yet to find a mention of BSDs, Linux-based operating systems, or even Unix.
Goodness knows what #IBM is going to do about #RHEL and #RPM. Clearly they completely missed a very important lobbying opportunity. I wonder if the IBM legal people know about this even yet.
@ariadne @RunxiYu @reallyflygreg @toddalio
#USLaw #CaliforniaLaw #FreeSoftware #RedHat
@RunxiYu @JdeBP I also don't really hate this law. I think it makes sense for consumer operating systems with app stores.
And, yes, I understand the law as presently written affects Alpine as we have legal nexuses with the state of California.
However, I also think between now and 2027, the current defects in the law will be corrected, and, most likely, some d-bus service will be created so that Alpine deployments with an App Store like experience can provide this data to apps that request it.
Those are unrealistically optimistic expectations of both the politics and the legislative procedure. This #CaliforniaLaw is nigh-on certain to come into effect as-is, come 2027-01-01.
https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116267717491590937
And at last count, #AlpineLinux now faces the same laws, with state-specific variations that are bound to introduce complexities, coming up in Colorado, Illinois, and New York. (I haven't directly tracked down the bill in any other states, but I've seen reports of at least one more.)
@RunxiYu
#NewYorkLaw #CaliforniaLaw #ColoradoLaw #IllinoisLaw #AgeVerification
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Jacques Chester@ariadne @RunxiYu my vague recollection of statutory interpretation is that intent is not law. Legislative intent only comes into interpretation if there are two equally plausible readings of an act that can only be chosen between by divining the legislature’s intent.
That this law might be developed with good intent, just ignorantly, does not make it any less dangerous.
(I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice.)