I very much agree. The enforcement of foreign laws is the problem of foreign jurisdictions; there’s no reason OpenBSD ought to put in any effort on their behalf, even if it’s just listing such jurisdictions out in the license. Trying to find loopholes and workarounds is futile; the people pushing for these measures can always come up with new amendments and crack down further.
The idea that if you operate on the Internet you are somehow subject to every single law in the world is destructive to open-source and community-run projects and the more we take that idea for granted the more it will end up entrenched in our societies. > On Mar 14, 2026, at 08:22, Nick Holland <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 3/14/26 00:35, Zbigniew Kossowski wrote: >> OpenBSD Project will face with Age Verification API due to recent >> regulations in California and others. A proposition is to preserve >> right to turn an API on/off at will by a user/admin to fulfill the >> natural right to be not verified. I belive a part of the IT word >> will stay on the same positoion. regards ZKossowski > > I think a flaw in your logic is assuming the OpenBSD project cares about > individual stupid laws. I'm sure some places have laws that prohibit > the use of strong encryption for communications, so OpenBSD is already > illegal in those areas. Oh well. > > I think the CAPS LETTERS part of the standard ISC license template deals > with this effectively: > > * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES > * WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF > * MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR > * ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES > * WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN > * ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF > * OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. > > The user is responsible for determining if OpenBSD (or any applications > running on it) is suitable for their environment...which includes legal > issues. > > Nick. >
