Also affects application developers [LWN.net]

Also affects application developers

Posted Mar 11, 2026 20:34 UTC (Wed) by fredrik (subscriber, #232)
In reply to: Also affects application developers by dskoll
Parent article: California's Digital Age Assurance Act and Linux distributions

Heh, almost-sorry-not-sorry for the following noise. Couldn't resist... *<:)

"Developer" is defined in the law as "a person that owns, maintains, or controls an application."

As a devil's advocate - and very much in the spirit of a developer who knowingly attempts to circumvent the law by legally invalid technical interpretations, and who has only read the above quote - what about the following argument?

My client, on trial, admits that they are both, a person who owns[0] the application "Baz", and that they are a person who is a maintainer of the application "Baz". Baz is an application that is provided to users under a FLOSS license.
My client has two objections to the charges of failure to implement functionality in Baz that fulfills the law's age verification requirements.
1. My client argue that they are never in control of said application when it is run by a user of the application on the user's computer. Hence my client can only comply to the law to the extent that the controlling user permits it.
2. Since the law was introduced, my client provides optional patches for the application, which implements a technical measure in the application to fulfill the law. When patched the application inquires the user's age range, and provides said range to any service which the application interacts with and which inquires the application about the user's age.
All users who are under the jurisdiction of the law, are encouraged to run versions of the application which includes these patches.
Hence, my client argues that they cannot be held responsible for users who are within the law's jurisdiction, but still choose not to apply the patches to their copy of Baz. Such unlawful usage is the fault of the user of Baz, not the owner or maintainer of Baz.

So... dear hypothetical arm-chair prosecutors, game on! What is your legal objection to these arguments?

A variation on objection 2: No patches are provided. Instead affected users are encouraged to both implement and apply patches that provide the necessary age verification. Baz is FLOSS after all. The user can modify it to ensure that when executed, Baz complies with any laws applicable to the user.

[0] I interpret "own" in the copyright sense of the word. Again, I really have only read the above quote, nothing more. PS. This comment may well be as obviously stupid as the law. So let me conclude with an preemptive apology to all who are annoyed by it. Cheers!

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Also affects application developers

Posted Mar 11, 2026 22:57 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> [0] I interpret "own" in the copyright sense of the word. Again, I really have only read the above quote, nothing more. PS. This comment may well be as obviously stupid as the law. So let me conclude with an preemptive apology to all who are annoyed by it.

My reaction was that if you are not the sole maintainer AND copyright holder, then the end user is just as much the owner of a FLOSS program as the maintainers.

Cheers,
Wol

Also affects application developers

Posted Mar 12, 2026 10:12 UTC (Thu) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link]

This is one of the reasons the "on the market" language the EU uses is so useful. Since it clearly scopes it to commercial transactions with EU entities. This law is placing specific obligations on "developers" and "operating system providers" (where?) but that's actually beside the point. Whether it's a developer, an AI or a vibe-coder doing the implementation, you care about the end-result, not who is doing it.

If this is typical for US regulations, then I understand why you need powerful regulators. Since basically the state has taken it upon itself to try and force companies/people (worldwide?) to work a specific way, rather than defining the rules of the game and letting the market figure out the most efficient way to achieve the desired result.

Also affects application developers

Posted Mar 18, 2026 12:01 UTC (Wed) by vonbrand (guest, #4458) [Link]

Another variation, a configuration option adds age limiting. Perhaps needs to be configured separately for a variety of age-reporting services.