Last week was [1]a statement by System76 regarding recent age verification laws in California and Colorado among other US states that could have a profound impact on Linux distributions and other open-source software. The Colorado legislation is especially pressing to System76 considering that is where they are based. Fortunately, they aren't taking this lightly and there is some hope that at least in Colorado open-source software could be excluded.

System76 CEO Carl Richell commented today on [2]X after meeting with a Colorado State Senator who co-authored the Colorado OS Age Attestation Bill:

"Today, I met with Colorado Senator Matt Ball, co-author of Colorado OS Age Attestation Bill SB26-051.

Sen. Ball suggested excluding open source software from the bill. This appears to be a real possibility.

Amendments are expected for the CA age attestation bill. It's my hope we can move fast enough to influence excluding open source in the CA bill amendments.

No illusions, it's an uphill battle, but we have an open door to advocate for the open source community."

No guarantees, but hopefully open-source software can end up being excluded in these various state bills, if these bills can't be struck down in their entirety. Thanks to System76 for advocating to their lawmakers to help prevent this becoming a major fiasco for the open-source community.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/System76-Age-Verification-Laws

[2] https://x.com/carlrichell/status/2031125624711164182