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JdeBPJdeBP@mastodonapp.uk
Mar 1, 2026, 9:23 PM
#CaliforniaLaw is written by people who are either very ignorant or very incompetent.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
They have assumed that all operating systems are like Microsoft Windows 11, Android, or iOS; and have written legislation for operating systems where people download glorified WWW client 'apps', from 'stores', which use 'accounts' that they have with vendors or Microsoft/Google/Apple.
But the legislation *as worded* *also* covers everything from #Debian and #Ubuntu through #Arch Linux and #MobaXTerm to #FreeBSD and #NetBSD and #OpenBSD; where users anonymously use package managers or ports systems to install applications, written by developers, on operating systems, from 'publicly available internet website' repositories.
There is no age field in the GECOS data in master.passwd(5) of course, and the reality is that no BSD or Linux-based operating system has this concept of apps/stores/accounts.
#MidnightBSD #FreeSoftware #Unix #California #USLaw #AgeVerification #GDPR
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Replies

JdeBPJdeBP@mastodonapp.uk
Mar 1, 2026, 9:25 PM
I foresee:
1. #Debian eventually following #MidnightBSD's lead and cutting #California off from #FreeSoftware; after lengthy mailing list discussions where at least one person tries to deny with convoluted nonsense the plain reading of the statute.
1. A storm when someone points out that the# MobaXTerm version of APT isn't exempt, nor is RPM. (Goodness knows what IBM is going to do.)
1. An even bigger storm when someone adds an 'age' field to systemd's JSON User Records, to be enforced and served out over Desktop Bus via a systemd-aged service or some such. Much fun if that someone comes from a #GDPR country.
1. Some nutter taking a Linux distribution to court because it doesn't enable developers to control whether 16-year-olds can install rustc and busybox.
#CaliforniaLaw #Unix #rust #USLaw #AgeVerification #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD
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David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)david_chisnall@infosec.exchange
Mar 2, 2026, 8:48 AM
@JdeBP Okay, I’ve finally read this and… I don’t actually hate it. If I understand correctly, I believe any *nix system can comply with this by:
- Creating four groups, one for each age group specified in the law.
- Creating a database to hold the dates of birth of all accounts that correspond to a human (probably a flat file, given that it’s key-value pairs of date and uid).
- Creating a cron job that runs daily, checks each user against the database and, if it’s their birthday, checks whether their group membership needs updating.
- Updating user-add scripts and GUIs to ask for the date of birth if creating an account for a human.
Any application can then query which age group a person is in by querying group membership and web browsers can expose this.
A child with root can bypass the mechanism, but it gives a tool for parents to set age restrictions if they wish and to allow supervised privileged access. It does not require any verification of the age.
It looks a lot more sensible than the UK’s Online Safety Act, which ends up requiring a load of privacy-invasive things.
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EFEF@bsd.cafe
Mar 2, 2026, 1:33 PM
@david_chisnall @JdeBP or they can simply **** right off
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