[GoLUG] On that California OS baloney...

[Bradley D. Thornton]

Just joined the list, but wanted to quote Steve Litt and offer my 
thoughts after reading the thread on that OS garbage.

"I have no choice but
to go back and re-license every one of the projects I've creates (and
there are others besides UMENU and VimOutliner), forbidding their use
in California."

I'm hearing this alot, and iirc, MidnightBSD was one of, if not the 
first to come out with just this very solution.

As for me, I'm not going to do anything, because due to the CCPA and 
GDPR, I already forbid anyone from California or residents of the EU to 
use any of my services, not that I bother checking much, but if they do 
they're in violation and subject to summary dunnage disposal. This is my 
AUP/ToS even though everything forward facing that I host is actually 
GDPR compliant anyway.

"I can understand doing this for Windows, where increasingly there's..."

This merely validates Microsoft trying to shore up any avenue to install 
with local accounts, and forcing everyone to have a, "Microsoft 
Account". It's also the reason Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, Acer, HP, and on 
Android Samsung (will no longer bundle their Androids w/Microsoft 
applications) are pivoting to Linux by default and spend more for the 
second choice Microsoft on their products.

Umm.... that last part actually reeks a bit like what IBM did to Digital 
Research when they launched the 5150.


Kyle wrote:

"However, tweaking the license to exclude Californians will
automatically drop “free/libre” and “open source” statuses.  Such a
requirement violates the “no additional restrictions” clause of both
the free software definition and the open source definition.  In fact,
adding such a restriction to GPL-licensed software is probably
illegal..."

Something to think about there, but in my case it's services, not 
distribution of software, and there's no relicensing of any of the AGPL 
software I host (nor could I, since it's not mine to re-license). Any 
changes to source are available as per the terms of the AGPL, and I 
don't bother with GPL'd software since I'm not distributing the 
software, only providing it as SaaS (the whole reason for the AGPL anyway).

What I am doing, is forbidding anyone in California (and soon to be 
Colorado) and the EU from using my services under the terms of my 
AUP/ToS - so there's no change in the intents and purposes of the 
publishers and devs of the software who originally decided upon the 
licensing for their products.

I do like the notion of the System76 Engineer however, and truth be 
told, I actually identify as a 22 year old man...

Until I try to spring and leap from bed feet first in the morning and 
realize the folly of trying to pretend that wasn't a few decades back.

Finally, Sy said:

"* California residents may no longer use DB48x after Jan 1st, 2027.
* Colorado residents may no longer use DB48x after Jan 1st, 2028."

IANAL (obviously), but, wouldn't that fall under Ex post facto? As long 
as manufacturing and/or sales ceased in those respective states prior to 
those dates?

Summary:

This obviously has EVERYONE on fire, and it's simply patently WRONG at 
face value, so I'm confident that this is a toothless predator trying to 
bring down big game. Even in the EU, they focused on "Services", not 
Software, and further, had the dumb luck (they would say 'wisdom') to 
only include services with more than some arbitrarily large subscription 
base of users (leaving the rest of us insignificant and downtrodden 
providers alone), affecting only the juggernauts who actually have purse 
strings to pull on.

Back when Clinton was President, they had outlawed "strong encryption" 
(not sure if this was the Bernstein case or another similar one), so 
most sysadmins would merely download the Microsoft NT service packs from 
overseas sources (making almost all of us potential felons) instead of 
the one we were legally permitted to obtain domestically.

I have no doubt these boneheads in Sac will continue to pass Cray Cray 
legislation, but I for one am going to ignore it here in 
SuperSunnySouthernCalifornia (it's actually quite overcast today at the 
beach), and let them do their worst!

I'm not sure, but it was maybe this one?
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-joins-appeal-bernstein-encryption-case


-- 
Bradley D. Thornton
Manager Network Services
https://NorthTech.US
Key available at:
https://keyoxide.org/A0E3913390670CCE

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