(Sending this on behalf of Brett Smith, please send any off-list info or questions to [email protected].)
Ever since we published the guidelines for what it takes to be a free system distribution (<http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html>), we've been thinking about how we can better deal with the issue of nonfree software that is accidentally included in these distributions. We're confident that the policy requirements that we currently have, expecting distros to dedicate themselves to removing any nonfree software that's discovered, are the right ones. But we've been looking for practical ways to be more proactive about addressing those sorts of problems -- steps that are within our means and the means of distribution maintainers like you. And we've come up with a new program that we think will do a good job of striking that balance. We're calling it the GNU Bucks program. If you're familiar with the rewards that Donald Knuth gives out for finding errors in his texts, this works similarly. We will ask people to send complete, detailed bug reports to the appropriate distros, and copy us. If the bug report leads to nonfree software being removed, they'll receive a special "GNU Buck" signed by RMS, along with public recognition on a web page if they like. When that happens, we'll also spread word to other endorsed distros, through the gnu-linux-libre mailing list, to make sure they can address the issue too. That way, we'll get as much benefit from this work as possible. In order to implement this program, can you please let us know how you would like to receive these bug reports? Any reasonable method is fine -- e-mail, bug tracker, RT, you get the idea. We'll collect all that information for all the endorsed distros and publish it on the GNU Bucks site -- we want to make sure that you can deal with these reports as easily as possible. And of course, if you have any questions about the program, feel free to ask me at [email protected]. Best regards, Brett Smith FSF Licensing Compliance Engineer -- John Sullivan Manager of Operations GPG Key: AE8600B6
