Is Debian itself *really* freely redistributable?

[Mike Coleman <coleman@chez-gnu.cstp.umkc.edu>]

The RMS troubles have started me wondering whether Debian itself is really
freely redistributable.  The Debian policy is to make sure that packages are
only included when their copyright makes it clear that they (i.e., the
original package in question) are freely redistributable (in the case of the
main tree) or at least freely available.

It seems to me, though, that the Debian packages themselves (e.g., *.deb)
files are derivatives that the package maintainers hold a (so far implicit)
copyright on.  And, as far as I can tell, very few of these packages/files
actually contain an explicit release (e.g., "I place my debian.* files and
other modifications under the GPL").

To me, part of the important "checks and balances" implied by the GPL is that
anyone who decides for some reason that the "official" branch of GPL'ed
software 'foobaz' is unacceptable is able to fork their own branch (e.g.,
XEmacs).  One result of this is to create a sort of marketplace--that is, if
the official maintainer of 'foobaz' is unable or unwilling to be sufficiently
responsive to its user community, someone else can start working on it,
without having to start from scratch.

With all due respect to our fearless leaders and package contributors, I feel
like this is an important property for Debian as a whole to have.  (I, for
one, am not sure I'd be able be able to resist if Mr. Bill offered to buy my
interest for, say, 1/30 of 1% of his net worth.  ;-)

I got here late.  Has this been discussed before?  What's the thinking on it?

Cheers,
--Mike