Hi, This writing, "GNU - Principles and Guidelines", is based on Andreas Elke's preliminary version (draft posted on 1 Nov 2019) of a general and concise document that states some guidelines ("GNU Social Contract") which came with a request for feedback.
In response to that request, earlier on-list feedback, and expressed support for having a couple of succinct documents that describe the structure and mission of the GNU project, I composed a version based on Andreas Elke's draft that attempts to address some of the problems that were raised. This amended version: - is closer to the situation as it currently exists and as such should need no additional agreement or undersigning of existing maintainers since it should describe the status quo. - retains the position of trust and authority of the FSF instead of placing it with the GNU maintainers (thereby working around the hitherto unaddressed problem that GNU maintainers--outside of adhering the the licensing of their package--need to have no affinity or even an interest in Free Software). - guarantees GNU maintainers can continue to work on the project as a loosely associated group of hackers if they so desire even though a more regimented approach can be implemented within each seperate component or package. Comments and questions are, of course, more than welcome. regards, Andreas ---- GNU - Principles and Guidelines This document states the obligations of the GNU Project and the core principles the project is based on. * The GNU system The purpose of the GNU Project is to create and maintain a body of software (the GNU Operating System, or GNU system) that respects the software users's freedom, where "users's freedom" is defined by the four essential software freedoms of which the definition is maintained by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The four essential software freedoms are: 0. The freedom to run the program as they wish, for any purpose. 1. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does their computing as they wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. 2. The freedom to redistribute copies so they can help others. 3. The freedom to distribute copies of their modified versions to others. By doing this they can give the whole community a chance to benefit from their changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. Unless the FSF deems a different license more beneficial to the advancement of free software in a particular instance, all GNU maintainers are urged to distribute their GNU packages under copyleft licenses with prejudice towards a current (or later) version of one of the GNU copyleft license family. * The GNU Project provides a consistent system Each software component developed by the GNU Project is referred to as a GNU package. GNU package developers should work together to ensure consistency across packages. GNU packages should follow the design and development guidelines of the GNU Project. * The GNU Project and the free software community The GNU project stakeholders are all users of the GNU system as represented by the FSF. As such, an FSF-sponsored maintainer for the GNU system as a whole (the Chief GNUisance) will ensure the GNU Project adheres to FSF guidelines pertaining to the GNU project in particular and software freedom in general. * GNU Maintainers and the GNU Project GNU maintainers have no obligations towards the GNU project or the FSF outside those set forth in the "Information for Maintainers of GNU Software" document. Outside of technical matters and a general disposition in favour of software freedom, the GNU Project as a single identifiable entity holds or propagates no opinions as its own. * Contributing to GNU The GNU Project encourages contributions from anyone who wishes to advance the development of the GNU system, regardless of gender, race, ethnic group, physical appearance, religion, cultural background, and any other demographic characteristics, as well as personal political views.