On 2026-03-05 00:20, Gabe Bauer wrote:
Do you want to FAFO? 13 days is not a lot of time, and $9.6 million is
a lot of money is all I'm saying...I would like this to be a no-op,
but I am certainly no lawyer or legal expert...
On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 5:50 PM Stephen Wiley <[email protected]>
wrote:
Since open source OSes don't really distinguish between users and
developers: thinking your age to yourself effectively verifies your
age
with the OS developers.
The whole thing seems like a no-op to me.
--Stephen
On Wed, Mar 04, 2026 at 05:42:26PM -0500, Gabe Bauer wrote:
Hello!
I assume that somebody has likely already informed Theo about the
new
operating system level age verification law that takes effect in
California
starting January 1st of next year?
There are also similar efforts making their way through Colorado
and New
York at the moment.
Most pressingly, a bill with hefty fines for non compliance (about
9.6
million USD), which is enough to completely sink the OpenBSD
Foundation and
project, and it takes effect starting thirteen days from now.
Are there any proposed solutions to this?
I believe the Brazilian law is more stringent on what is required
to comply
with the measure, including, correct me if I am wrong, actual
government ID
submission, which is likely not feasible for a default OpenBSD
installation.
Does the OpenBSD project plan to implement the necessary measures
to comply
with these laws, or will they take the route of MidnightBSD, by
simply
stipulating in the license that people in these areas are not
allowed to
use the software?
This is VERY important to me as I am sure it is to you, too, as I
am sure
all of us would like to see projects like this one to continue to
exist.
I am fairly certain that the California law likely violates the US
constitution, but may go unchallenged.
I am less certain about the constitutionality of the Brazilian law
within
its own borders.
I hope this project does not suffer an unkind fate. Thank you for
your
attention to this matter!!
