California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
California lawmakers unanimously exempt Linux and open-source licenses from the state's age-verification law.
California lawmakers unanimously passed an exemption for Linux and open-source software from the state's age-verification law. The exemption covers software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses. Additionally, lawmakers inserted a provision prohibiting anyone from requesting an age signal from an OS provider or app store unless required by law.
What commenters are saying
Commenters largely viewed the exemption as a small patch on a fundamentally bad law, not a victory. The dominant sentiment: the age-verification law itself is an invasion of privacy and an authoritarian trend, and the Linux exemption only proves how poorly conceived the original law was. Some noted Android is still covered, while others argued the exemption creates an internally contradictory law rather than fixing its core problems.