Colorado’s SB51 age-attestation bill has moved forward from a House committee with new language that exempts open-source operating systems, applications, code repositories, and containerized software distribution from key requirements.
The bill, officially called SB26-051, focuses on operating system providers and application stores. Its main requirement is that these providers supply an age-related signal via an interface, so applications can determine whether a user is a minor.
This changed with the amended version approved by the Colorado House Business Affairs & Labor Committee. System76 founder Carl Richell shared on Fosstodon that the updated bill now includes “a strong exemption for open source distros and apps” and has passed in the House committee.
He also quoted the key part, which says Article 30 does not apply to an operating system provider or developer that distributes software under license terms that let recipients copy, redistribute, and modify the software without restrictions from the provider or developer.
The amendment is important because it does not mention Linux by name. Instead, it describes software distributed under free and open-source licenses. This wording covers Linux distributions and many open-source applications without linking the exemption to any specific project, company, or ecosystem.
The amendment also excludes applications from free, public code repositories from being considered covered applications. It also excludes code repository providers and containerized software distribution from being defined as covered application stores. This is meant to prevent platforms like GitHub, GitLab, Docker, or Podman-based distributions from being treated like commercial app stores under the bill.
Richell also later said there are still more steps to go, but the effort is moving toward protecting Colorado’s open-source community. In a reply about the GPL, he explained that the concern is not about GPL-style licenses themselves, but about whether the operating system vendor or developer stops users from installing modified versions of the software.
However, the bill is not law yet. The committee’s action means SB51 has moved forward with changes, but it still has to go through the rest of the Colorado legislative process. This is important because amendments can change before the final vote, and the bill still needs to pass more steps before it becomes law.
@ Ian
You and I both know what the OP was talking about regarding the shot, come off it.
As far as YOUR experiences with the vaccine, even considering the people *you know*, it’s a small sample compared to the realities of what happened globally to people who received the vaccine(s) who either died or experienced mental and/or physical problems.
“Without restriction”
Except there ARE restrictions on the distribution of GNU/Linux. Specifically, the freedoms provided to you must also be provided to all users of your distribution
so how does California get this.
This age verification issue is just Bill Gates and buddies behind the scenes pushing for ways to make Linux/alt_OSes more difficult to use.
If anyone doubts this, look how many people INJECTED POISON into themselves during COVID care of the Gates express. Think about that for a second.
The powers that be are SCARED of free OSes. They want you sucking the teat of Windows/MAC and NOTHING ELSE.
Refuse! Resist! Use Linux/BSD/Haiku/And so on
People actually injected the bleach Trump talked about?
no hes talking about covid vaccine that killed old people with weaker immune systems then younger people. lots of older people died that where given the vaccine and it was never tested as thoroughly as other vaccines that came before it since it was rushed.
The vaccine could not be bought, taken home and self injected, so people could not inject themselves with it. This old person took all of the COVID vaccines offered, and never got it during the 3 years I worked around people, some of whom got COVID. All of my family members got the COVID vaccine and are alive and without problems. I know a lot of elderly and young people who got the vaccine and had no problems with it. They were my coworkers.
I also know of people who refused the COVID vaccine, got COVID and died from it.
Given the rapid spread and the lethality of COVID, it is not surprising that prolonged, extensive trials for the vaccine were not done before it was implemented. I remember tents being put up on hospital grounds to treat the COVID patients because the hospitals had run out of beds.