Mastodawn

systemd and xdg-desktop-portal/flatpak jumping the gun to implement age tracking fields is so on character it hurts, rushing it out, despite that

a) system76 folks are trying to give exceptions for open source software
b) afaik, california and colorado laws may only require a field, but alabama, utah, and NY, seem to require full verification, so, how will that be

i hate this timeline

dmi 💽 Mar 19

@navi i wonder who’s responsible for not providing a field like this if it happens. the distro? the software as a product? the dev team?

considering how this industry looks in general… nihil novi. I wish OSS was about resistance, but apparently the major players are all about compliance. A Fucking Shame.

witch_t *navi Mar 19

@domi

> I wish OSS was about resistance, but apparently the major players are all about compliance. A Fucking Shame.

i saw someone on reddit asking about the same thing:

> I can't help but think twenty years ago, the open source community would have just ignored this legislation. What changed?

and the only thing i can say for it, is "the corporativization of open source"

dmi 💽 Mar 19

@navi and most users are happy with how things are, and look at me weird for having any opinions :/

witch_t *navi Mar 19

@domi both systemd and xdg-portals locked their respective PRs for getting "too heated"

and someone got mad at someone else for posting links to it on social media

:)

dmi 💽 Mar 19

@navi aside, it’s really funny how one of the last comments was poettering asking claude to review

well, the bot will certainly fucking agree…

0xC0DEC0DE07EA Mar 19

@domi @navi ugh…

@navi @domi @ska

I predicted the storm, as well as a systemd-aged, as well as the #GDPR angle, over a fortnight ago. It took less than a day from my post for the first person, in reply, to propose an actual such #AgeVerification dæmon.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116156028746782578

This clearly model legislation is also slightly different in different states, as at least two legislatures amended the original bill. Which is going to cause further problems.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116176048755057656

#ColoradoLaw #IllinoisLaw #CaliforniaLaw #USLaw #Unix

@navi @domi @ska

I've just had a very brief glance at the pull request. I even predicted the chosen implementation mechanism of JSON User Records.

This must make me a #systemd influencer. (-:

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

#AgeVerification #Unix #USLaw #GDPR

userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd

Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

GitHub

pancakes🔜Bed Mar 19

@domi @navi resistance is political which is against the rules

dmi 💽 Mar 19

@squeakypancakes @navi fuck da rules!

alarmed feet operative: kimothy siddon Mar 19

@navi can people stop licking boots for like 5 seconds? how has there been not even 1 person in the chain of development stopped and made it impossible to go through?

HowToPhil Mar 19

@navi They have no backbones. FFS. Refusal to implement is the only viable path forward.

@navi Charitably, the lawyers they talked with probably told them to implement something to get the heat off their ass

Laurent Bercot Mar 19

@cadey @navi don't you think we collectively have been more than charitable enough already?

Hugo 雨果 Mar 19

@navi Ironically, this sounds like it could create a new liability in other jurisdictions: where asking for a date of birth is asking for personal information and you'd need to justify why you're asking users for such personal information.

Not so much on personal computers sold to the end user, but more in commercial settings with shared hosts.

Fritz Adalis Mar 19

@navi @kajer
Just make the age verifier thing always say you're a minor, so they 'can't' target you for ads. Malicious pre-compliance.

@navi would be funny if all they had is a checkbox that asks "are you in <lists all those places>" and it just doesn't have any restrictions/verification if you don't check it