The problem of Germany

[ell1e]

After reading this quite understandable notice regarding California and Colorado, I thought of how there's also a German equivalent that is apparently meant to come into effect in 2027: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Youth-Protection-States-Pass-Porn-Filters-for-Operating-Systems-11086768.html

In some ways this one seems to be even worse, I'm not a lawyer so assume I'm wrong:

But to me it reads a little like you would neeed to even have an online filter, without an option being somehow provided for free, so no idea how any Linux would do that. They seem to make an attempt for the law to not apply to devices not commonly used by teens, but the exclusion is so vague I have no idea 1. what this means for OSes that aren't preinstalled (e.g. do they need to ask for your id on download to make sure they don't end up commonly used on devices for teens?), or 2. how this applies to e.g. something like the Steam Deck, or 3. why on earth there isn't at least an exclusion criterion limiting it to some minimum revenue for-profit OS makers or something.

Anyway, I could be wrong about all of this. This isn't legal advice. But I'm guessing that might make you rethink the current contents of the notice. Also, if any media person reads this, please take a look at the situation.

(Important for EU: And there's also EU's apparent plan to do something similar to the UK Online Safety Act: https://leminal.space/post/31858818/21120139 And no, it's not Chat Control. But don't trust me, read the sources.)

(Another update: apparently New York is now joining the fun of age tied to accounts as well, so I've heard.)

[dxgldotorg]

Aren't all of these restrictions incompatible with the copyleft LGPL license this software is under?

[ell1e]

I wonder, do you have a better proposal for what the project should be doing? (I don't mean to dismiss your concern, I'm not a contributer anyway, I'm just curious.) The best solution would probably be to gain enough public awareness to undo this mess before 2027. However, especially the German law seems barely known.

[dxgldotorg]

I wonder, do you have a better proposal for what the project should be doing? (I don't mean to dismiss your concern, I'm not a contributer anyway, I'm just curious.) The best solution would probably be to gain enough public awareness to undo this mess before 2027. However, especially the German law seems barely known.

Probably the best thing to do would be to to raise a stink with charities like EFF and Software Freedom Conservancy and push to get these laws overturned on First Amendment grounds.

[ell1e]

That might help with the US situation, but KDE for example is situated in Germany. I've found the EFF and SFC hard to reach, I'm guessing they're quite overworked. I can only recommend anybody reading should email them about this, e.g. by linking this Github issue.

[irvan-putra]

will it be solved with more generic LEGAL-NOTICE.md?

like maybe "if you are at the jurisdiction with laws requiring age verification, this software isn't for you"

i'm not a lawyer though, but i am interested on how this go since i also like calculators

[prismv]

In the given article one can read:

The aim is to protect young people on the internet from age-inappropriate content such as pornography, violence, hate speech, incitement, and misinformation.

As long as this platform is not the core service (we may call it operating system) that offers a first-hand implementation of internet access, e.g. a calculator model with WiFi, such 'issues' are not.

[ell1e]

I don't think anybody here disagrees the situation is infuriating and as far as it concerns calculators, when looked at from a practical angle, doesn't seem to help kids much. Sadly, I doubt that necesssarily means the law won't apply. (IANAL, though.)

[dxgldotorg]

I don't think anybody here disagrees the situation is infuriating and as far as it concerns calculators, when looked at from a practical angle, doesn't seem to help kids much. Sadly, I doubt that necesssarily means the law won't apply. (IANAL, though.)

Has anyone actually contacted an attorney instead of just pulling off stunts for YouTube influencers like Lunduke?