Matt Zimmerman wrote:
The question isn't whether non-Debian-specific bugs should be forwarded upstream (they absolutely should); the question is whether they should go to the Debian maintainer _first_ so that they can be screened and to ensure they are filed upstream in the proper way. For users who don't know how to report bugs properly, it helps if the maintainer knows how to forward bugs back to Debian if he suspects they are not his.
And many upstreamers don't like bug from user[1] (with modified source, like debian do), because they don't know the difference in sources made by debian. Maintainer can often screen bugs, and tell upstream if it was a debian problem/library problem or a general problem.
ciao giacomo [1] i.e. gcc folks, kernel people,...