Russ, Your text accommodates almost all of my ideas while being simpler, clearer and minefield-avoiding. So I enthusiastically endorse it.
However, I do wish that we could figure out how to write a minefield-avoiding third sentence for your paragraph on the main archive area that definitively asserts (what I believe we all know to be true) that Debian main is more or less a guarantee that the software therein is freely usable (and distributable) in the broadest sense. That is, that Debian main is unreservedly usable for personal, non-profit, for-profit, or, in short, for any purpose. But I'm blanking on text that would work. On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 10:38:14AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: > CJ Fearnley <c...@cjfearnley.com> writes: > > > Especially since the main, contrib, and non-free archive areas are not > > described anywhere else (as far as I can tell), it would be helpful if > > some descriptive text were added to explain the intent of policy. I > > suggest the following in the hopes that others will flesh out the > > descriptions to be more accurate and complete than my first cut: > > > 2.2.1 The main archive area > > > The main archive area is where the core of the Debian GNU/Linux system > > lives. All of the software in main can stand alone as a fully > > operational system without any software from contrib or non-free. The > > software included in main is vetted to ensure compliance with policy and > > the DFSG. In addition it does not depend on any software outside main, > > it is believed to be wholly unencumbered by patents, and is believed to > > have no legal encumbrances that could affect users or our ftp archive > > operators. > > I think we need to say explicitly that only main is part of the Debian > distribution. I'd also rather not add any mentions of legal vetting other > than referring to the DFSG, since this is a bit of a minefield. How > about: > > The main archive area comprises the Debian GNU/Linux distribution; > only the packages in this area are considered part of the > distribution. None of the packages in the main archive area require > software outside of that area to function. > > and then going on to the language already there, which already requires > that all the packages comply with the DFSG. > > > 2.2.2 The contrib archive area > > > The contrib archive area is where fully policy compliant and DFSG free > > software is put that depends on or recommends non-free software or > > software that is otherwise unavailable within Debian. Contrib software > > is believed to be wholly unencumbered by patents and to have no legal > > encumbrances that could affect users or our ftp archives. However, > > contrib software usually requires using either non-free software or > > software that is otherwise not available or not policy compliant. > > The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to > work with the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, but which require > software outside of the distribution to either build or function. > Apart from this requirement, all software in the contrib archive area > complies with the DFSG and with the policy requirements in this > manual. > > > 2.2.3 The non-free archive area > > > The non-free archive area is where software that is freely > > redistributable, but not fully policy compliant (which can be as simple > > as failing the software build requirements) or not DFSG free, or is > > encumbered by patents or is affected by other legal issues that could > > affect our users or our ftp infrastructure. > > The non-free archive area contains supplemental packages intended to > work with the Debian GNU/Linux distribution that do not comply with > the DFSG or have other problems that make their distribution > problematic. They may not comply with all of the policy requirements > in this manual due to restrictions on modifications or other > limitations. > > I don't think any of the above changes anything normative, so once we > reach consensus on the wording I can go ahead and apply this. > > -- > Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- We are on a spaceship; a beautiful one. It took billions of years to develop. We're not going to get another. Now, how do we make this spaceship work? -- Buckminster Fuller CJ Fearnley | Explorer in Universe c...@cjfearnley.com | "Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller http://www.CJFearnley.com | http://blog.remoteresponder.net/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org