On Thursday, Sep 18, 2003, at 07:05 US/Eastern, Richard Stallman wrote:
Manuals are not free software, because they are not software. The DFSG very clearly treats "software" and "programs" as synonymous.
And we very clearly treat everything in Debian as software (see the first clause of the Social Contract). Also, Bruce Perens (author of the Social Contract and the DFSG) has clarified that this is indeed the intent.