I’ve been posting this in other threads too and while the OS angle is huge, and worth picking a fight with, I haven’t seen any coverage over how this goes after developers too.
I think this is an attack on ALL open-source.
These bills are written by people who are clearly or maliciously tech illiterate and don’t understand either the terminology or the practical impacts. And of course it’s wrapped in ‘what about the children?!’
They include definitions like (paraphrasing; not quoting a specific bill, but New York, Colorado and California do this):
- “Application” is any software application that may be run on a user’s device – so … EVERYTHING.
- “Application Store” is any publicly accessible website or similar service that distributes applications – so … also everywhere, such as GitHub or GeoCities.
- “Developer” is a person who writes, creates or maintains an application – so if you have a github repo, or you’ve posted a binary or perhaps even a script somewhere recently, you’re a developer.
And then require both developers and operating system providers to handshake this age verification data or face financial ruin. I think the original intent or appearance of intent is that the store developer needs to do the handshake. I’m not a lawyer, but I can’t imagine these definitions aren’t vague enough that they can’t be weaponized against basically anything software.
I have a github account, and have contributed to “applications”. As I read them, these bills pose a serious threat to me if I continue to do so, as that makes me a “developer” and would need to ensure the things I contribute to are doing age verification – which I don’t want to do.
I think that even outside the surveillance aspect, the chilling effect of devs not publishing applications is the end-goal. Gatekeeping software to the big publishers who have both the capacity to follow the law and the lawyers/pockets to handle a suit. These laws are going to be like the DMCA 1201 language (which had much much more prose wrapped around it and was at least attempting to limit scope), which HAS been weaponized against solo devs trying to make the world better.
I fully expect some suit against multiple github repo owners on Jan 2, 2027.
I’ve emailed the office of Buffy Wicks, the author of the California bill, with similar details as the above. I haven’t yet identified the authors of the NY and CO bills, but I’m working on that too. If you live in one of these places, please contact your state officials and tell them this is a bad idea – and if you don’t live there, keep an eye on your state bills.
Cherry@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
I feel like I wanna walk away from the internet for my personal life.
The second problem is just how much has moved online for example processing documents (your passport etc) same as when you have issues there’s no number to ring the store.
So it’s not like we are totally able to. We need to turn it back to how it was. They said use the internet because it made life efficient. We need to take that back.
MyRobotShitsBolts@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This has been a long time coming, a perfect example of the frog in in the pot; well, the water is boiling now.
I will not comply with any of this. No website or service or app or app store is getting my ID. I know I wont be the only one, and the system has removed so many manual ways of doing things that those of us who refuse will bring the system to a grinding halt. It will not be easy and life will be made more difficult for us, but it will also be for them.
We must all resist this in every way we can.
Cherry@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
It’s gonna have to be that way. I saw something here the other day saying they couldn’t check a parcel delivery without an app. Someone suggested emailing daily for an update. I aspire to be that petty.
bisby@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I had to have a friend help me because a company I bought from only did customer support through Instagram.
minorkeys@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Be the vanguard. It will take groups of people intentionally trying to live disconnected to figure out a way and have businesses start supporting it. The internet is becoming a liability as much as an asset.