Will FreeBSD be available in California in 2027?

So there is a REDDIT discussion going on in the (Link): Linux Forum here

A comment from one user is:
AB-1043 doesn’t require Linux, Windows, or FreeBSD to implement some kind of sweeping system-level age verification. What it actually requires starting in 2027 is that, at account setup, an operating system provider asks for a birthdate and then converts that into an age bracket (under 13, 13–15, 16–17, or 18+) that apps can request.

Of course I would need to read this legislation to make sure ... but if the (ABOVE) is correct, an easy fix for *BSD's, Linux, UNX is simply to add a another field to the (Link Wikipedia) BSD GECOS and well... we are done :-)

Applications running on *BSD, Linux, UNIX, etc "that even care about this setting" can make the standard *BSD (Link) getpwent(3) call and look at this field.

Easy Peasy... and most of us will hard code this /etc/passwd value to some useless value any way :cool:

BUT of course it's okay to say "Nawwww, this is silly! We are not going to do this!" also.
 
Thinking about how one might implement this starts out OK: Add something to adduser to prompt for the age range in store it in /etc/passwd, or maybe in /var/db/AccountsServce/users/[I]<username>.[/I]

But then you get to the part that says:

(b) (1) A developer shall request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a
covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched.

Does that mean it has to check when you do a pkg install and also when you start the application? What if you build the application from Ports? Does the make file need to check somehow?

The law seems to think every computer is a desktop. I used to work on IBM mainframes. Since people do not have mainframes in their homes, I think you could safely say that there are no mainframe users who are under 13.

I think what the MidnightBSD folks are doing may be the right answer, unless some industry group lawyers up and takes the law on. They could probably win in court, but it would cost a lot.
 
Well, Newsom ain't gettin' my vote for president now. And seriously folks, that might matter enough to him so that if enough of us protest against this, he might be against it too. (I don't even know what Newsom's view on it is.)
blackbird9 from what I read, the UK is even worse, as far as the "think of the children" excuse to get everyone's information. (But that's a general impression, and I could be wrong).
 
scottro said:
Well, Newsom ain't gettin' my vote for president now. And seriously folks, that might matter enough to him so that if enough of us protest against this, he might be against it too. (I don't even know what Newsom's view on it is.)
blackbird9 from what I read, the UK is even worse, as far as the "think of the children" excuse to get everyone's information. (But that's a general impression, and I could be wrong).
Click to expand...
I think UK is roughly on the same level, or heading that way. The aussie's have gone a step further I think (with recent ban on social media for under 16s), but UK/canada/EU/calif all seem to be more or less aligned.
 
Zare said:
What exact EU "law" does this correspond to?
Click to expand...
I was speaking generally, not in terms of exact laws. The EU "chat control" law (if it's passed) is another similar measure, as reported here, for example:-
www.theguardian.com

The EU wants to scan every message sent in Europe. Will that really make us safer? | Apostolis Fotiadis

Lawmakers argue that mass surveillance will help to protect children. But the implications for our privacy and security are staggering, says journalist Apostolis Fotiadis
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

When I say those countries are more or less aligned... I mean that they appear to have the same general direction of travel. Not that they are all implementing the exact same set of laws and restrictions. It's really only an impression I get from reading the mass media, I'm not any kind of legal expert.
 
lgrant said:
I used to live near Berkley, Michigan. Maybe they need a change of scenery. (I know, the name is missing an "e", but it is close.)
Click to expand...
If they want to move to the UK, we have Berkeley, Gloucestershire... this one comes with a castle! :)
1772238510475.png


It's also got a magnox NPP that is currently being decomissioned, so the BSD guys have two great sites to choose from! One might be a bit more radioactive than the other... but they will probably give you a special deal on the rent and as a bonus you get a lovely view of the reactor containment vessel out of the window!😁
1772238808612.png

en.wikipedia.org

Berkeley nuclear power station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
vmb said:
MidnightBSD has already decided to change their license to prohibit use in California due to the Digital Age Assurance Act. Will FreeBSD be doing the same?

Click to expand...
IANAL and this isn't advice to anybody. But, the whole thing is a mess, any copies of the OS that were downloaded and installed prior to the law being enacted are likely grandfathered in due to not generally being able to ban things retroactively. From a technical stand point, it's questionable whether MidnightBSD can ban people from using the software in CA without violating the terms of the licenses on the software that people outside of the project made. It's quite clear that California is violating the 1st amendment rights of software developers and projects by mandating changes be made.

My suspicion is that you'll have anybody in the state of CA taking down their mirrors of the software for a while and people downloading greymarket copies from out of state, possibly using a VPN. The worst of it is probably the impact this might have on contributors living in CA that might technically be on the hook until the courts strike this down for violating the 1st amendment.

But, whatever happens, it's going to be a real mess in the meantime. It's also unclear as to how they expect to prevent random people outside of the state from creating patches to remove the requirement that could be imported into the state without anybody being able to catch them doing so. It's not like international boundaries where at least theoretically border control gets a say.
 
As a FreeBSD user in California, things here have gotten pretty insane. FreeBSD is open source. On all the OSS OSs, this can be ripped out easily enough by the users who know how to do it, so the law now becomes unenforceable and it will make it's way into the annals of bizarre laws that are on the books but never enforced.
 
blackbird9 said:
I was speaking generally, not in terms of exact laws. The EU "chat control" law (if it's passed) is another similar measure, as reported here, for example:-
www.theguardian.com

The EU wants to scan every message sent in Europe. Will that really make us safer? | Apostolis Fotiadis

Lawmakers argue that mass surveillance will help to protect children. But the implications for our privacy and security are staggering, says journalist Apostolis Fotiadis
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...

Mass surveillance is not the direction of travel in EU, but EU citizens are already mass-surveiled by American corporations through social network and the internet.

Chat control (I don't agree with it not in a slightest) is one bad part of EU digital sovereignty efforts.
Instead of providing sane/safer/open alternatives to current social networks and Internet services, stupid EU politicians think they can just get the data we send to Americans in the first place.
 
How about Berkeley, Missouri? Home of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules and Boeing F-15EX Eagle II****T-7A Red Hawk trainer MQ-25 Stingray refueling drone, and formerly the F/A-18 Super Hornet. .
 
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