alt Hacker News> Our FOSS code is constitutionally protected free speech and I would defend on those grounds.
You have precisely zero additional speech rights as a FOSS project than any other organization has. If "free speech" was a valid defense for you, then Meta would be doing the same.
> The technical design of the project just makes it so no one can force changes on the distro unwanted by the maintainer team regardless of any courtroom outcomes.
Being unable to comply is not a valid legal defense.
> Like, what if someone made a law that said Bitcoin nodes must KYC? They could make the law I guess, and the international network operators would just laugh at it.
This is the law in various places under various mechanisms. It is handled by putting people in prison or taking people's assets.
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Unless the PGP decision has been overturned, code as free speech is in fact a valid defense. If the government couldn't stop code they claimed were "munitions" from getting distributed, then it seems unlikely that they'll stop a Linux distro.
Corporations do whatever seems most profitable. We can't base our understanding of constitutional rights on whether Meta decides to defend them.
> Being unable to comply is not a valid legal defense.
Sure it is. Lawyers even have a pithy Latin maxim about it: lex non cogit ad impossibilia.
> If "free speech" was a valid defense for you, then Meta would be doing the same.
Meta lobbied heavily for this. The fact that they have not decided to use free speech to fight the move that they are lobbying for is not an argument that free speech is irrelevant here.
This is not legal advice but a personal request: please do not get your legal advice from Hacker News. Get it from a lawyer.
>If "free speech" was a valid defense for you, then Meta would be doing the same.
Is that some sort of in joke? Meta loves more surveillance, more data and more info about their vassals^W users.
I'm sure their lobbyists were pushing hard to get this law passed.
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Okay well if they want to jail me for being unable to comply with violating the privacy of the users of the Linux distro I work on it. Cool, I guess.
They would sure be wasting a lot of resources and public goodwill with absolutely no positive outcome for their agenda. Which is why I do not think it will actually happen.
But if it does, it does. Not going to live my life in fear, I have more security and privacy tools to ship :)