California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt
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.
California lawmakers have unanimously passed Assembly Bill 1856, exempting open-source operating systems from the state's Digital Age Assurance Act. The bill, which was passed on August 26 in a 39-0 vote, exempts software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses from the requirement to collect user age data during account setup.
This exemption applies to popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and the BSD family. The bill also removes software components that aren't offered as standalone executables through app stores from its definition of applications. Additionally, it prohibits anyone from requesting age signals from OS providers or app stores unless required by law.
Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android will remain subject to the age-verification law, while SteamOS remains unclear as its components are a mix of open-source and proprietary.
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