Re: Amendment to GR on GFDL, and the changes to the Social Contract

[Debian Project Secretary]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:41:19 +0100, Frank Küster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: 

> Hi, the text of the amendment says at its very end:

> ,
>> Since this amendment would require modification of a foundation
>> document, namely, the Social Contract, it requires a 3:1 majority
>> to pass.
> `

> But AFAICS it does not propose a textual change to the SC, just a
> change of its meaning, or interpretation or whatever.

I am afraid I was responsible for that rider. I should
 apologize for not sending a clarification earlier, but I was
 inadvertently away from my keyboard since my laptop's graphics card
 died just as I was going off on a business trip


> I have a couple of questions about this:

> - Has this been done previously?  If yes, where can I find a
>   collection of all decisions that have thus "changed" the SC?

Err, we have had two GR's that changed the SC -- the so called
 "editorial changes" GR, and the GR that deferred the changes for
 Sarge.  But in each case we followed through and changed the text of
 the SC.

> - Shouldn't we add a sentence to the SC, something like "In a couple
>   of cases, the interpretation of this Social Contract or how it
>   should be spelled out in technical details was controversial among
>   the project, and votes have been taken.  The results of these
>   votes are at hyperlink> "?

> As for the intention of the amendment, it seems to me that it relies
> heavily on the assumption that the excempted clauses are simply bugs
> of the license text and not the actual intention.  Given how bad
> communication with the FSF was wrt to the GFDL, I doubt that we can
> sure about this...

The fact that the license is buggy does not change the fact
 that works licensed under it would violate the DFSG. Given that, any
 resolution to allow these works to remain in Debian would require a
 rider to be added to the SC, something of the form:
- Debian will remain 100% free
+ Debian will remain 100% free, apart from works licensed under the GFDL
   (the exact wording can be decided upon if the amendment passes).

Since this requires a modification of a foundation document,
 the amendment requires a 3:1 majority.

manoj
-- 
signal(i, SIG_DFL); /* crunch, crunch, crunch */ Larry Wall in doarg.c
From the perl source code
Debian Project Secretarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
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Proposal to delay the decition of the DPL of the withdrawal of the Package Policy Committee delegation

[Debian Project Secretary]

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-- 
"I've seen it.  It's rubbish." Marvin the Paranoid Android
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Discussion period: GR: DFSG violations in Lenny

[Debian Project Secretary]

ver during getting an release out of the
|  door, decisions need to be done how to get a rock stable release of the
|  high quality Debian is known for, release more or less on time, and to
|  minimize the usage of problematic software. We acknowledge that there
|  is more than just one minefield our core developers and the release
|  team are working at.
|  
|  We as Developers at large continue to trust our release team to follow
|  all these goals, and therefor encourage them to continue making
|  case-by-case-decisions as they consider fit, and if necessary
|  authorize these decisions.
|
|  (Since this option overrides the SC, I believe it would require 3:1
|  majority)
`

We need a title for proposal 4, which allows the release team to
 override the social contract using case-by-case decisions.


manoj
-- 
Gauls! We have nothing to fear; except perhaps that the sky may fall on our 
heads tomorrow. But as we all know, tomorrow never comes!! -- Adventures of 
Asterix
Debian Project Secretary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Re: DFSG violations in Lenny: new proposal

[Debian project secretary]

ee software. We don't trade
|  them against each other. However during getting an release out of the
|  door, decisions need to be done how to get a rock stable release of the
|  high quality Debian is known for, release more or less on time, and to
|  minimize the usage of problematic software. We acknowledge that there
|  is more than just one minefield our core developers and the release
|  team are working at.
|  
|  We as Developers at large continue to trust our release team to follow
|  all these goals, and therefor encourage them to continue making
|  case-by-case-decisions as they consider fit, and if necessary
|  authorize these decisions.
|
|  (Since this option overrides the SC, I believe it would require 3:1
|  majority)
`

,[ Proposal 5: allow Lenny to release with firmware blobs ]
|  1. We affirm that our Priorities are our users and the free software
| community (Social Contract #4);
|
|  2. We acknowledge that there is a lot of progress in the kernel firmware
| issue; most of the issues that were outstanding at the time of the
| last stable release have been sorted out. However, new issues in the
| kernel sources have cropped up fairly recently, and these new issues
| have not yet been addressed;
|
|  3. We assure the community that there will be no regressions in the
| progress made for freedom in the kernel distributed by Debian
| relative to the Etch release in Lenny (to the best of our knowledge
| as of 1 November 2008);

|  4. We give priority to the timely release of Lenny over sorting every
| bit out; for this reason, we will treat removal of sourceless
| firmware as a best-effort process, and deliver firmware as part of
| Debian Lenny as long as we are legally allowed to do so, and the
| firmware  is distributed upstream under a license that complies
| with the DFSG. 
`

manoj
-- 
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government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
Debian project secretary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Re: call for seconds: on firmware

[Debian Project Secretary]

lative to the Etch release in Lenny (to the best of our knowledge
| as of 1 November 2008);

|  4. We give priority to the timely release of Lenny over sorting every
| bit out; for this reason, we will treat removal of sourceless
| firmware as a best-effort process, and deliver firmware as part of
| Debian Lenny as long as we are legally allowed to do so, and the
| firmware  is distributed upstream under a license that complies
| with the DFSG. 
`
   i Do we require source for firmware in main: Yes*
  ii Do we allow the Release Team to ignore SC violation bugs:  No
 iii What do we do for Lenny:   Release
  iV Do we modify foundation documents: No
   v Do we override foundation documentsNo

 * This proposal gives the binary blobs distributed in the kernel
   the benefit of doubt, and assumes they do not violate the GPL and are
   the preferred form of modification, however unlikely that is.

,[ Proposal 6: Exclude source requirements from firmware (defined) ]
| Firmware is data such as microcode or lookup tables that is loaded into
| hardware components in order to make the component function properly.
| It is not code that is run on the host CPU.
|
| Unfortunately such firmware often is distributed as so-called blobs,
| with no source or further documentation that lets us learn how it works
| or interacts with the hardware in question.  By excluding such firmware
| from Debian we exclude users that require such devices from installing
| our operating system, or make it unnecessarily hard for them.
|
| Therefore the Debian project resolves that
|  a) firmware in Debian does not have to come with source.  While we do
| prefer firmware that comes with source and documentation we will not
| require it,
|  b) we however do require all other freedoms that the DFSG mandate from
| components of our operating system, and
|  c) such firmware can and should be part of our official installation media.
|
|  (Since this option overrides the SC, I believe it would require 3:1
|  majority)
`
This will need wording to change the SC, since this is not a
 temporary override, but adds a definition of firmware, and an exclusion
 from the 100% free promises of the SC. 
   i Do we require source for firmware in main: No
  ii Do we allow the Release Team to ignore SC violation bugs:  No
 iii What do we do for Lenny:   Release
  iV Do we modify foundation documents: Yes
   v Do we override foundation documents    No

manoj

-- 
Excusing bad programming is a shooting offence, no matter _what_ the
circumstances. -- Linus Torvalds, to the linux-kernel list
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First call for votes for the Lenny release GR

[Debian Project Secretary]

-

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