I queried a websearch:

legality of adding age restrictions to gnu gpl licensed software

and its llm summary blurb said:

Adding age restrictions to GNU GPL licensed software is illegal under the license terms because the GNU General Public License explicitly prohibits any discrimination against persons or groups. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) maintains that the GPL contains a "No Discrimination" clause which forbids restrictions on use by specific fields of endeavor, user groups, or demographics, including age.

License Violation: The GPL states that no additional restrictions may be imposed on recipients beyond what the license itself specifies. Any term that limits who can use, modify, or distribute the software (such as an age requirement) is considered a further restriction and is therefore invalid.
Right to Remove: Under the GPL v3, if a recipient receives software with such an additional restrictive term, they have the explicit right to remove that term and use the software without it.
FSF Stance: The FSF has publicly clarified that modifying GPL licenses with incompatible terms, such as those limiting freedom based on user attributes, is a misuse of the license that confuses users about their granted freedoms.
While copyright law might allow a creator to set initial terms, once they release the software under the GPL, they waive the right to impose further limitations on the licensees. Consequently, any age restriction added to a GPL-licensed project would be unenforceable against users who choose to ignore it, as the license grants them the freedom to use the software regardless of age.

#AgeRestriction #AgeVerification #GNUGPL #GNU #GPL #SoftwareLicensing #FreeSoftware #Freedom0 #Freedom1 #Freedom2 #Freedom3 #law #legality #statues #license #unlawfulestatute #ageism #externality #sass #freedom #freedoms

gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.htm… states:

The four essential freedoms
A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
[1]

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. Otherwise, it is nonfree. While we can distinguish various nonfree distribution schemes in terms of how far they fall short of being free, we consider them all equally unethical.

In any given scenario, these freedoms must apply to whatever code we plan to make use of, or lead others to make use of. For instance, consider a program A which automatically launches a program B to handle some cases. If we plan to distribute A as it stands, that implies users will need B, so we need to judge whether both A and B are free. However, if we plan to modify A so that it doesn't use B, only A needs to be free; B is not pertinent to that plan.

Footnote
The reason they are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3 is historical. Around 1990 there were three freedoms, numbered 1, 2 and 3. Then we realized that the freedom to run the program needed to be mentioned explicitly. It was clearly more basic than the other three, so it properly should precede them. Rather than renumber the others, we made it freedom 0.

Senior citizens are leading the Voting Day efforts in southern New Mexico!

Excerpt of last night's field report from the Alamogordo, New Mexico volunteer canvassing army:

Mr J S at the Aristocrat, who's organized about 32 voters to get to the polls from assisted living, tomorrow, did us another HUGE favor on the mail-in ballots: I sent him the list from the Aristocrat Address, he confirmed, by less than 20minutes later that: 1 died, 1 moved to Las Cruces, 1 bedridden and didn't get her mail in ballot on time and too frail to "go out & vote": saved us about 45 minutes, during this critical time. ALSO, Mr J S took 120 Sharon flyers to the White Sands Mall, and passed them out, from his mobility aid-assisted situation - what an activist & supporter! You gotta recognize a living legend of enthusiasm for community care and community building, even when his chips are down. He can't talk on the phone anymore because he's too deaf and the tech is too complicated for him to use as support: but he does text, instead! I love our elders, who show me paths over obstacles, and how to inspire others from all life vantage points.

#NewMexico #Voting #Elections #Democracy #Politics #USpol #Community #CommunityBuilding #SeniorCitizens #Ageism #Ableism #Vote #AssistedLiving #Deaf