[Please direct followups to debian-vote.]
Now that the vote over the meaning of clause 4.1.5 of the Debian
Constitution is drawing to a close, the time is ripe to clear the last
bit of pending business from the discussions of the summer of 2000.
My proposal to amend the Debian Social Contract follows. You can find
the text of the existing Debian Social Contract at <URL:
http://www.debian.org/social_contract > or on your Debian system in the
file /usr/share/doc/debian/social-contract.txt if you have the
doc-debian package installed.
*****************************************************************
"Social Contract" with the Free Software Community {+[PROPOSED DRAFT
FOR AMENDMENT; NOT OFFICIAL]+}
1. Debian Will Remain 100% Free [-Software-]
We promise to [-keep the-] {+preserve your right to freely use,
modify, and distribute+} Debian [-GNU/Linux Distribution entirely
free software. As there are many definitions of free software, we-]
{+operating system distributions. We+} include the guidelines we use
to determine if [-software-] {+a work+} is "free" [-below.-] {+in
a document called the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Every work
contained in our distributions will satisfy those guidelines.+}
We will support our users who develop and run non-free software
on Debian, but we will never make the system depend on an item of
non-free software.
2. We Will Give Back to the Free Software Community
When we write new components of the Debian system, we will license
them as [-free software.-] {+freely in a manner consistent with the
Debian Free Software Guidelines.+} We will make the best system
we can, so that free software {+and other works+} will be widely
distributed and used. We will [-feed back bug-fixes,-] {+communicate
bug fixes,+} improvements, user requests, etc. to the "upstream"
authors of software {+and other works+} included in our system.
3. We [-Won't-] {+Will Not+} Hide Problems
We will keep our entire [-bug-report-] {+bug report+} database open
for public view at all times. Reports that users file [-on-line-]
{+online+} will [-immediately-] {+promptly+} become visible to
[-others.-] {+others without requiring manual approval. Project
discussions will be held in forums open to public participation
except where absolutely necessary. We are committed to transparency
and accountability in our decision-making processes.+}
4. Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the [-free-software-]
{+free software+} community. We will place their interests
first in our priorities. We will support the needs of our users
for operation in many different kinds of computing environment.
We [-won't-] {+will not+} object to commercial software that is
intended to run on Debian systems, and [-we'll-] {+we will+} allow
others to create value-added distributions containing both Debian
and commercial software, without any fee from us. [-To support-]
{+In furtherance of+} these goals, we will provide an integrated
system of [-high-quality, 100% free software,-] {+high-quality works
of software and other materials+} with no legal restrictions that
would prevent these [-kinds of use.
5. Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs
that don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We
have created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our FTP archive for
this software. The software in these directories is not part of
the Debian system, although it has been configured for use with
Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the licenses of
software packages in these directories and determine if they can
distribute that software on their CDs. Thus, although non-free
software isn't a part-] {+uses+} of [-Debian, we support its use,
and we provide infrastructure (such as-] our [-bug-tracking-]
{+operating+} system [-and mailing lists) for non-free software
packages.-] {+distributions.+}
*****************************************************************
[N.B.: wdiff produced possibly confusing output. If you look carefully,
you will see that clause 5 has been stricken entirely.]
Some of my amendments are semantic; that is, they change the meaning of
the Social Contract, whereas others are editorial; that is, they change
the wording of the Social Contract in an effort to convey the intended
meaning (as I understand it) in a clearer way.
Rationales for amendments:
1) I felt it was important and useful to elaborate upon some of the core
freedoms we mean when talking about "free software" (or free
documentation, free images, etc.): those are the freedoms to use,
modify, and/or distribute the work in question.
2) Debian has been, and is increasingly, more than just a GNU/Linux
distribution. We produce multiple operating systems, and it does not
stand to reason that our GNU/Linux distribution will be the only one
worthy of a stable release forever. I have thus generalized the
language to "Debian operating system distributions" instead of
"Debian GNU/Linux Distribution".
3) The DFSG is, in my opinion, a separate work from the Social Contract,
and has a different scope. I have tweaked the wording of SC #1 so
that people don't always expect to find the text of the DFSG "below".
I do not seek to stop us from distributing the documents together,
however, and this proposal has no bearing on such a decision.
4) This proposal expands the language of our committment to freedom
beyond just "software". This proposal does not call for a renaming
of the DFSG, however, nor for the creation of another document to
provide guidelines for "non-software" works.
5) "feed back bug-fixes" felt like an awkward construction to me. This
is an editorial, not a semantic, change.
6) I expanded the contractions "we'll" to "we will" and "won't" to "will
not"; another editorial change.
7) The GCIDE prefers "online" to "on-line", and so do I; this is an
editorial change.
8) We cannot literally commit to bug reports becoming publicly visible
"immediately". We can commit to "promptly", however, and explicitly
spell out what was left implicit in the origianl Social Contract: we
will not have a staff of gatekeepers deciding which bug reports get
to be seen by the public, as practically all commercial software
interests do.
9) I have expanded the premise of SC #3 to cover grounds other than just
the BTS and technical problems in our products. Back in 1998, a lot
of non-technical discussions took place on -private (such as the
discussion of the Social Contract itself), but Debian has evolved
away from that, and nowadays traffic on -private is far more
restricted. I propose amending SC #3 to reflect this evolution, and
our need for greater transparency in accountability so that our
Project works better not just for the sake of the Free Software
community, but for our own developers, who are far more numerous now
than they were in 1998. Our committment to the principles in my
proposed clause 3 will help us ensure that we scale to meet the
demands placed on us by our larger (and still increasing) size.
10) I propose "free software community" instead of "free-software
community"; an editorial change. The concept of "free software" has
gained currency over the past 5 years as the GNU/Linux has increased
its profile, and I think we can afford to refer to it as such in our
Social Contract without confusing too many people.
11) I changed "To support the goals" to "In furtherance of these goals";
an editorial change that implies (to me, anyway) more forceful and
directed action.
12) In both clause 1 and clause 5, I have replaced the phrase "100% free
software" with other constructions that are, hopefully, less
ambiguous, especially to those who must translate the Social
Contract into other languages. (This is not a made-up problem; it
was brought to the attention of the debian-legal list earlier this
year.)
13) Clause 5 has been stricken entirely. *This amendment does NOT
mandate the removal of the non-free section from anything,
anywhere.* What it does do is withdraw our commitment to provide a
"non-free section" via a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) archive
specifically. This makes it possible for us to decide, in the near
or distant future, to stop distributing the non-free section without
violating our own Social Contract.
I am seeking seconds and editorial amendments to this proposed General
Resolution.
The full texts of the existing Social Contract as it stands, and as it
would appear if the above amendments were accepted, are MIME-attached.
(The draft also include a prominent notice of its unofficial status,
too, of course, so that no one is confused.)
--
G. Branden Robinson | You don't just decide to break
Debian GNU/Linux | Kubrick's code of silence and then
branden@debian.org | get drawn away from it to a
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | discussion about cough medicine.
"Social Contract" with the Free Software Community
1. Debian Will Remain 100% Free Software
We promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution entirely free
software. As there are many definitions of free software, we include
the guidelines we use to determine if software is "free" below. We will
support our users who develop and run non-free software on Debian, but
we will never make the system depend on an item of non-free software.
2. We Will Give Back to the Free Software Community
When we write new components of the Debian system, we will license them
as free software. We will make the best system we can, so that free
software will be widely distributed and used. We will feed back
bug-fixes, improvements, user requests, etc. to the "upstream" authors
of software included in our system.
3. We Won't Hide Problems
We will keep our entire bug-report database open for public view at all
times. Reports that users file on-line will immediately become visible
to others.
4. Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free-software
community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We
will support the needs of our users for operation in many different
kinds of computing environment. We won't object to commercial software
that is intended to run on Debian systems, and we'll allow others to
create value-added distributions containing both Debian and commercial
software, without any fee from us. To support these goals, we will
provide an integrated system of high-quality, 100% free software, with
no legal restrictions that would prevent these kinds of use.
5. Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs that
don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have created
"contrib" and "non-free" areas in our FTP archive for this software.
The software in these directories is not part of the Debian system,
although it has been configured for use with Debian. We encourage CD
manufacturers to read the licenses of software packages in these
directories and determine if they can distribute that software on their
CDs. Thus, although non-free software isn't a part of Debian, we
support its use, and we provide infrastructure (such as our
bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free software packages.
"Social Contract" with the Free Software Community
[PROPOSED DRAFT FOR AMENDMENT; NOT OFFICIAL]
1. Debian Will Remain 100% Free
We promise to preserve your right to freely use, modify, and
distribute Debian operating system distributions. We include the
guidelines we use to determine if a work is "free" in a document
called the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Every work contained in
our distributions will satisfy those guidelines. We will support our
users who develop and run non-free software on Debian, but we will
never make the system depend on an item of non-free software.
2. We Will Give Back to the Free Software Community
When we write new components of the Debian system, we will license
them as freely in a manner consistent with the Debian Free Software
Guidelines. We will make the best system we can, so that free
software and other works will be widely distributed and used. We will
communicate bug fixes, improvements, user requests, etc. to the
"upstream" authors of software and other works included in our system.
3. We Will Not Hide Problems
We will keep our entire bug report database open for public view at all
times. Reports that users file online will promptly become visible
to others without requiring manual approval. Project discussions will
be held in forums open to public participation except where absolutely
necessary. We are committed to transparency and accountability in our
decision-making processes.
4. Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software
community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We
will support the needs of our users for operation in many different
kinds of computing environment. We will not object to commercial software
that is intended to run on Debian systems, and we will allow others to
create value-added distributions containing both Debian and commercial
software, without any fee from us. In furtherance of these goals, we
will provide an integrated system of high-quality works of software
and other materials with no legal restrictions that would prevent
these uses of our operating system distributions.
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