California Passes AB-1856 For Open-Source Relief Over Age Verification

As an update to the May story about California's age verification law may end up exempting most Linux distributions, that AB-1856 bill has finally passed! As good news to the months of headaches over California's Digital Age Assurance Act and concerns around its impact on the Linux/open-source world, AB-1856 has finally passed which now amends protections and exemptions for easing compliance of open-source platforms. Per the bill's text, a key addition is: "(2) “Operating system provider” does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software." Thereby exempting Linux distributions, BSDs, and others distributed under open-source licenses. There is also an exemption on the application side around package managers: "(2) “Application” does not include software components that are not themselves offered to consumers as a stand-alone executable application through a covered application store." As of this week, AB-1856 passed the California Assembly with 69 in favor, zero against. For software not exempted, the California Digital Age Assurance Act takes effect on 1 January 2027 for requiring age collection at device setup time and age-bracket signals for applications.