【文章标题】：California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law 【标题翻译】：加州立法者全票通过Linux豁免年龄验证法案
【文章正文】： California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt 加州立法者全票通过Linux豁免年龄验证法案——基于GPL、MIT、BSD和Apache许可证分发的软件获得豁免
AB 1856 excludes open-source operating systems from the upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act. AB 1856法案将开源操作系统排除在即将实施的《数字年龄认证法案》适用范围之外。
California’s legislature has passed Assembly Bill 1856, exempting open-source operating systems from the State’s Digital Age Assurance Act months before the law is due to take effect on January 1, 2027. The Senate amended the Bill on August 21 before passing it on the 26th in a 39-0 vote, with the Assembly then accepting these changes in a concurrence vote the following day. The amendment ends almost a year of uncertainty surrounding whether Linux distributions and SteamOS would be forced to collect user age data during account setup alongside Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. AB 1856 has now been sent to Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the original act into law last October. 加州议会已通过AB 1856法案，在《数字年龄认证法案》原定2027年1月1日生效前数月为开源操作系统争取到豁免权。参议院8月21日修订该法案后，于26日以39-0票通过，次日议会以同意票接受修订。这项修订终结了近一年来关于Linux发行版和SteamOS是否需像Windows、macOS、iOS和Android那样在账户设置时强制收集用户年龄数据的争议。AB 1856现已提交给去年10月签署原法案的州长加文·纽森。
These amendments redefine the term “operating system provider” to exclude any person or entity that distributes an OS or application “under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.” Any software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses satisfies that test, which removes the likes of Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and the BSD family from AB 1856’s scope. 修订案重新定义”操作系统提供商”术语，排除”根据允许接收者复制、重新分发和修改软件的许可条款”分发OS或应用的任何个人或实体。基于GPL、MIT、BSD和Apache许可证分发的软件均符合豁免标准，使Debian、Fedora、Ubuntu、Arch及BSD家族等脱离AB 1856管辖范围。
A second exclusion removes software components that aren’t “offered to consumers as a stand-alone executable application through a covered application store” from the law’s definition of an application, covering libraries and dependencies distributed through package managers like apt and pacman. AB 1856 doesn’t explicitly say that repos aren’t app stores, but a store’s main obligation under the law is to request an age signal from the user’s OS provider and pass it to developers; an exempt open-source OS produces no signal. A third carve-out excludes storefronts distributing extensions or add-ons that run exclusively inside a host application, which takes browser extension stores out of scope. 第二项排除条款将”未通过受管辖应用商店作为独立可执行应用向消费者提供”的软件组件移出应用定义，涵盖通过apt和pacman等包管理器分发的库和依赖项。AB 1856虽未明确声明代码仓库非应用商店，但法律规定商店主要义务是从用户OS提供商获取年龄信号并转交开发者，而豁免的开源OS不产生信号。第三项例外排除了专门在宿主应用中运行的扩展程序商店，使浏览器扩展商店不受管辖。
The amendments to AB 1856 also remove the original definition of “user,” which read, “a child that is the primary user of a device,” and technically classified every device owner in California as a child. The law’s signaling framework depends on adults declaring their age on account setup, so their devices get flagged as 18 and over, but under that definition nobody could ever be flagged as an adult. AB 1856修订案还删除了原”用户”定义——“设备的主要使用儿童”，该定义技术上将所有加州设备所有者归类为儿童。法律信号框架依赖成年人在账户设置时声明年龄以标记18+设备，但按原定义无人可被标记为成年人。
In addition, lawmakers inserted a new provision prohibiting anyone from requesting an age signal from an OS provider or app store unless required by law. That closes off potential abuse of the age API that could have led to it being used as a general-purpose data collection channel even when age verification wasn’t required. Platforms and developers also gain a good-faith safe harbor against erroneous signals, protecting them from liability when age-gating signals are inaccurate. 此外，立法者新增条款禁止任何人在非法定要求情况下向OS提供商或应用商店索要年龄信号。此举杜绝了年龄API被滥用作通用数据收集渠道的可能性。平台和开发者还获得针对错误信号的善意安全港保护，当年龄门控信号不准确时可免除责任。
Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android remain fully in scope, with age collection required at account setup from January 1, 2027. A later July 1, 2027, deadline applies to devices set up before January 1. Whether SteamOS is in scope isn’t yet clear: its Arch-based system components are open source, but Valve distributes the image alongside the proprietary Steam client. GrapheneOS, which in March said it would refuse to comply with age-verification mandates, is distributed under open-source MIT and Apache licenses and now falls outside the law’s scope entirely, though Brazil’s Digital ECA still applies to it. Windows、macOS、iOS和Android仍完全受管辖，2027年1月1日起需在账户设置时收集年龄。1月1日前设置的设备适用2027年7月1日的截止日期。SteamOS是否受管辖尚不明确：其基于Arch的系统组件是开源的，但Valve同时分发专有Steam客户端。三月份声明拒绝遵守年龄验证要求的GrapheneOS采用MIT和Apache开源许可证分发，现已完全不受该法约束，但仍需遵守巴西《数字ECA法案》。
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who wrote both the Digital Age Assurance Act and the AB 1856 amendment, introduced the exemption back in February following criticism from Linux developers and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 同时起草《数字年龄认证法案》和AB 1856修正案的议员Buffy Wicks，在受到Linux开发者和电子前沿基金会批评后，于今年二月提出豁免条款。
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Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory. Luke James是自由撰稿记者。尽管具有法律背景，但对科技领域尤其是硬件、微电子及监管事务抱有浓厚兴趣。
Bigshrimp It’s interesting that they made those exemptions. I wonder how long it will take for them to take those exemptions away in the future. I know more people will migrate to the exempt platforms after the law goes into effect, so that may accelerate them to removing those exemptions eventually.Reply
- Bigshrimp：这些豁免很有趣。不知道未来多久会取消这些豁免。法律生效后更多人会迁移到豁免平台，这可能加速最终取消豁免的进程。
Plus it seems that a lot of other states and countries are putting age verification on the books to try to pass similar laws. Ageless Linux is a good website to keep track of these laws and what FOSS Linux distros are for or against age verification. 另外似乎许多其他州和国家都在推动年龄验证立法。Ageless Linux是追踪这些法律及FOSS Linux发行版对年龄验证立场的优质网站。
https://agelesslinux.org/index.html https://agelesslinux.org/index.html
USAFRet Reply People have had 2 decades to change to an open source OS.Bigshrimp said:I know more people will m
- USAFRet回复：人们已有二十年时间转向开源OS。Bigshrimp说：我知道更多人会…（原文截断）