If only gNewSense were to adopt the free-rider approach I've been talking
about, which is my main point, then they could be regarded as "Debian Libre"
as well. Unfortunately gNewSense seems to be going the hard way too. While
they get close, with the aim of "the difference with Debian should be kept
minimal", they still seem to be modifying Debian/main -an extra undertaking-
which is not strictly required for FSF endorsement.
http://www.gnewsense.org/VerificationTeam
http://www.gnewsense.org/Documentation/3/DifferencesWithDebian
The critical question here is whether a deb based libre distro (be it
Trisquel, gNewSense, so called "Debian Libre" or whatever) is using the
original Debian/main repository "as-is" (with exceptions) or not. Debian
community is more likely to adopt such a strategy, but anyone can do it as
well. Currently no one does it AFAIK.
