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Re: Linux to be illegal in California?

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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On Tue, 12 May 2026 08:57:36 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
<bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> wrote:

>
>
>On 5/12/26 08:33, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> Any truth in the rumour that California has just passed a law that
>> would make Linux illegal there?
>
>	Not at all.

What about this, then?

"A recently enacted law in California imposes an age-verification
requirement on operating-system providers beginning next year. The
language of the Digital Age Assurance Act does not restrict its
requirements to proprietary or commercial operating systems; projects
like Debian, FreeBSD, Fedora, and others seem to be on the hook just
as much as Apple or Microsoft. There is some hope that the law will be
amended, but there is no guarantee that it will be. This means that
the developer communities behind Linux distributions are having to
discuss whether and how to comply with the law with little time and
even less legal guidance.

The law requires operating-system providers to provide a form of age
verification that can be queried by any web site, application, or
online service "that distributes and facilitates the download of
applications from third-party developers" for computers, mobile
devices, or other general-purpose computing devices. The law goes into
effect on January 1, 2027, which leaves less than ten months for
distributions to determine if the law applies to them and then
implement a solution if it does."

See here:

<https://lwn.net/Articles/1062112/>



>
>> Is California run by Maga now?
>	Hardly.  This law about OSes getting proof of age is more
>Nanny Law.
>
>	I will illegally use Linux anywhere I happen to be which
>is San Francisco, California.  We have some MAGA but mostly
>they are farmers  in the Central Valley.

-- 
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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Thread

Linux to be illegal in California? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-05-12 17:33 +0200
  Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-05-12 08:57 -0700
    Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2026-05-12 18:16 +0000
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 04:52 +0000
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:25 +0000
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-05-13 08:40 +0200
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:48 +0100
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:31 +0000
          Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:49 +0000
            Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 18:55 +0000
              Re: Linux to be illegal in California? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2026-05-13 19:13 +0000
                Re: Linux to be illegal in California? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:41 +0200
                Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-14 02:05 +0000
              Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-14 02:01 +0000
    Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-05-13 08:38 +0200
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-05-13 13:12 +0000
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:57 +0000
          Age verification methods (Was: Linux to be illegal in California?) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-05-13 18:26 +0000
            Re: Age verification methods (Was: Linux to be illegal in California?) "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:44 +0200
          Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2026-05-14 03:31 +0000
  Re: Linux to be illegal in California? John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> - 2026-05-12 20:45 +0000
    Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-05-13 06:18 +0200
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-13 00:24 -0400
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:55 +0100
          Re: Linux to be illegal in California? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:54 +0000
      Re: Linux to be illegal in California? John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> - 2026-05-13 17:15 +0000
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-05-14 05:44 +0200
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-15 20:29 +0000
          Re: Linux to be illegal in California? John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-05-15 13:50 -0700
          Re: Linux to be illegal in California? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-15 21:44 +0000
        Re: Linux to be illegal in California? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-15 22:54 +0200
  Re: Linux to be illegal in California? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:44 +0100

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