6 ms·

The law is targetting consumer operating systems, not linux servers/iot devices.

• mistercheph 7mo ago
  Does the law state that? What if children find out about the exception and start installing Alpine Linux to circumvent the law?
  • cbsmith 7mo ago
    Yes. I'd recommend reading the bill if you have concerns.
    • lysace 7mo ago
      https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm... I think mistercheph is right to be concerned. This bill applies to all "operating system providers", defined thusly: (g) “Operating system provider” means a person or entity that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system software on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device. Regarding penalities: 1798.503. (a) A person that violates this title shall be subject to an injunction and liable for a civil penalty of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per affected child for each negligent violation or not more than seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per affected child for each intentional violation, which shall be assessed and recovered only in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General.
      • upofadown 7mo ago
        >This bill applies to all "operating system providers", ... Not really. >...for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store. So the OS has to provide an age signal to apps from a "covered application store" defined as: e) (1) “Covered application store” means a publicly available internet website, software application, online service, or platform that distributes and facilitates the download of applications from third-party developers to users of a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing that can access a covered application store or can download an application. (2) “Covered application store” does not mean an online service or platform that distributes extensions, plug-ins, add-ons, or other software applications that run exclusively within a separate host application. So things like Windows, Android and iOS...
        • al_borland 7mo ago
          Wouldn’t that classification apply to Linux package managers as well? They are publicly available online services that distribute and facilitate the download of applications from third party developers to users of a general purpose computing device.
          • upofadown 7mo ago
            That doesn't seem to be the intent for something like, say, Debian. How would that work anyway? This would probably cover something like a Linux based Steam box, where there are different organizations providing applications.
            • al_borland 7mo ago
              That may not be the intent, but it seems like it would still apply. Many of the “app stores” on Linux are just front ends for the package manager in some way. I assume the people behind this don’t know things like apt or dnf exist, so it likely wasn’t considered.
              • upofadown 7mo ago
                There are a large number of things that the people behind this don't know about. That doesn't mean that they screwed up. It means that the law does not apply to those things.
                • lysace 7mo ago
                  The path towards "does not apply to those things" is messy.
        • rendaw 7mo ago
          It doesn't say "only if there's a covered application store present on the system". But maybe everyone in power will interpret this non-logically in exactly the right way that this doesn't become abusive.