As Colorado and California move age verification to the OS layer, exemptions for open source determine whether Linux desktops stay free of mandatory age‑gating.
One of the big stories concerning free software and open source lately has been legislation in Colorado and California to enforce age restrictions at the operating system level. These are regulations that require, out-of-the-box, operating systems to determine with a degree of certainty the age of the holder of a computer’s user account.
Colorado’s law, which won’t go into effect until 2028, already exempts open source operating systems, thanks in part to efforts by CEO Carl Richell and his team at System76, which manufactures servers, desktops, and laptops preinstalled with in-house developed Pop!_OS or Ubuntu Linux distributions.
The law now officially exempts the following:
“An operating system provider or developer that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software without any platform‑imposed technical or contractual restrictions imposed by the provider or developer on installing all modified versions.”
California’s legislation currently has no exemption for open source, although further legislation containing something close to the following (already-approved) wording is likely to be passed before it goes into effect on January 1:
“‘Application’ does not include software components that are not themselves offered to consumers as a stand-alone executable application through a covered application store.
‘Operating system provider’ does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.”
So far, Colorado and California are outliers. Although age verification and age restrictions for certain online content are increasingly being legislated both nationally and internationally, the target primarily remains platforms serving age-sensitive content, not the machines trying to access them. However, if targeting operating systems proves successful, that might change.
The New Laws and the Everyday Linux User
If you’re wondering what this means to the everyday Linux user who goes to a distro’s website and downloads and installs a distro, probably not a whole heck of a lot. Since collecting personal data to hand over to government sources already goes against the mindset of nearly all free software and open source supporters and advocates, it’s unlikely that most desktop Linux distributions are going to become collection agencies for state governments.
Even if you live in Colorado or California — or later find yourself living in a state that decides to get on this bandwagon — it’s unlikely that your state government is going to send a trooper to your home to take you in for operating a computer that doesn’t meet age collection requirements. As System76 and others studying these laws point out, the states are targeting providers who sell or support devices. Those of us grabbing a Fedora or Debian image and installing it at home aren’t even going to be on their radar, although some wording could be stretched to include us as “device manufacturers.”
Enforcement resources and incentives will be aimed at visible commercial actors, not us unwashed masses of individual Linux users burning USB sticks.
That being said, without these special exemptions for open source operating systems, there undoubtedly would be a price to pay down the road in Colorado, California, or any other jurisdictions that decide to require age verification at the operating system level. Both existing state laws require that new devices be compliant from the first day the law goes into effect, meaning that if you purchase a Mac from an Apple Store in California, you’re going to have to go through the age verification process the first time you boot the computer, if one of the Apple Geniuses doesn’t walk you through the process while you’re still in the store.
Those of you who already own a Mac or a Windows machine will get off the hook for a year, but at sometime during that year — either through an age verification app as part of a download, a website established by your OS or device maker, or through some other means — you will eventually be forced to verify the ages of every user on your machine. If you don’t verify your age and prove your adulthood, sites that fall under age verification will likely flag you as a minor and restrict your access — so it might be PG-only films on Netflix.
Without the special consideration for open source OSes, that latter group would include Linux users. With the exemption, Linux users should be unaffected if all goes according to plan.
Time will tell.
Age Collecting Regs and the OEMs
It’s the original equipment manufacturers selling preinstalled Linux on desktops and laptops that have the most to lose without the open source exemption — which is why System76 got politically involved in its home state of Colorado where it might hold some sway.
The big OEMs selling preinstalled Linux — such as Dell and Lenovo — can absorb the cost of the additional infrastructure and manpower that would be required to make state legislators happy, even though a return on investment study might prompt them to go back to offering only Windows machines. For the smaller Linux specialty manufacturers like System76 and Tuxedo, which started marketing preinstalled Linux back in an age when mainstream OEMs all but refused, it’s a different story.
System76 and Tuxedo, the two largest “Linux first” manufacturers that are 100% dedicated to producing machines with Linux preinstalled, are tiny when compared to the likes of HP, Dell, and Lenovo. System76 is likely the largest, with best guess estimates by industry insiders putting its work force at about 50, with Tuxedo coming in at over 25. The cost involved with becoming compliant with age-verification regulations would likely drive both out of the Colorado and California markets without the open source exemption.
For the time being, things are looking hopeful. Free software, Linux, and open source supporters in Colorado or California, however, might want to write your state representatives in support of the open source exemption.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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