On Sun, 24 Sep 2006, Don Armstrong wrote: > Baring objection, I plan on calling for a vote with a suggested > balot containing only this option in a few days (no later than > 09-27). As the Secretary has indicated that amendment proposed by Frans Pop would be disparate from this one (and the similar points are roughly equivalent to Further Discussion) I call for a vote under A.2.1. The minimum discussion period has elapsed (the 5th second for the proposal occured on 2006-08-25), and the clarification to the content of the proposal was an A.1.6 modification. I have attached the content of the proposal as I understand it, and the suggested ballot. I leave the exact timing of the vote to the Secretary's discretion and convenience. Don Armstrong -- Any excuse will serve a tyrant. -- Aesop http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
[ ] Choice 1: DFSG #2 applies to all programmatic works [ ] Choice 2: Further discussion
The Free Software movement is about enabling users to modify the works that they use on their computer; about giving users the same information that copyright holders and upstream developers have. As such, a critical part of the Free Software movement is the availability of source (that is, the form of the work that a copyright holder or developer would use to actually modify the work) to users. This makes sure that users are not held hostage by the whims (or lack of interest or financial incentive) of upstreams and copyright holders. Different types of works have different forms of source. For some works, the preferred form for modification may not actually be digitally transferable.[1] For others, the form that originally was preferred may have been destroyed at some point in time, and is no longer available to anyone. However, to the greatest extent possible,[2] the availability of source code to users is a critical aspect of having the freedom to modify the software that is running upon ones computer. Recognizing this, the Debian Project: A. Reaffirms that programmatic works distributed in the Debian system (IE, in main) must be 100% Free Software, regardless of whether the work is designed to run on the CPU, a subsidiary processing unit, or by some other form of execution. That is, works must include the form that the copyright holder or upstream developer would actually use for modification. B. Strongly recommends that all non-programmatic works distribute the form that the copyright holder or upstream developer would actually use for modification. Such forms need not be distributed in the orig.tar.gz (unless required by license) but should be made available on upstream websites and/or using Debian project resources. C. Reaffirms its continued support of users whose hardware (or software) requires works which are not freely licensed or whose source is not available by making such works available in non-free and providing project resources to the extent that Debian is capable of doing so. D. Requests that vendors of hardware, even those whose firmware is not loaded by the operating system, provide the prefered form for modification so that purchasers of their hardware can exercise their freedom to modify the functioning of their hardware. 1: Consider film negatives, or magnetic tape in the case of audio recordings. 2: Here it must be emphasized that we refer to "technically possible" or "possible for some party" as opposed to "legally possible for Debian". We also assume digital distribution, and do not attempt to require the distribution of physical objects.
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