The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.
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Policy change for "main", "contrib", and "non-free"

The Debian project leader, policy manager, and archive manager have
followed the developer's debate on contrib and non-free policy, and
have reached a consensus about changing the policy requirements that
packages in the different distribution directories have to comply
with.

With the new policy, it will be possible to continue distributing
"contrib" on the Official Debian CD, the Official CD will become
entirely DFSG-compliant, and the official CD will have more programs
on it than previously.

A few binary-only programs, etc. that are currently in "contrib" have
to be moved to "non-free". "contrib" packages will be allowed to
|depend on non-free packages or packages that are entirely outside of
our archive. This means that there will be programs in "contrib" that
can not be installed if you don't have "non-free". For example, we
will distribute KDE in "contrib", and Qt in "non-free" (KDE depends on
Qt).

Here is the new policy text, which will be included in the next Debian
Policy Manual, version 2.3.0.0 (available soon):


   1. The main section

   Every package in "main" must have a license complying with the DFSG.
   (The DFSG is Debian GNU/Linux's definition of "free" software.)

   In addition, the packages in "main"

      - must not require a package outside of "main" for compilation or
        execution (thus, the package may not declare a "Depends" or
        "Recommends" relationship on a non-main package),

      - must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,

      - must meet all policy requirements presented in this manual.


   2. The contrib section

   Every package in "contrib" must have a license complying with the DFSG.

   Examples of packages which would be included in "contrib" are

      - free packages which require "contrib", "non-free", or "non-US"
        packages or packages which are not in our archive at all for
        compilation or execution,

      - wrapper packages or other sorts of free accessories for
        non-free programs,

      - packages which we don't want to support because they are too
        buggy, and 

      - packages which fail to meet some other policy requirements in
        a serious way.


   3. The non-free section

   "Non-free" contains packages which are not compliant with the DFSG
   or which are encumbered by patents or other legal issues that make
   their distribution problematic. 

   All packages in "non-free" must be electronically distributable across
   international borders.


   4. The non-US section

   Some programs with cryptographic program code must be stored on the
   "non-us" server because of export restrictions of the U.S.

   This applies only to packages which contain cryptographic code. A package
   containing a program with an interface to a cryptographic program or a
   program that's dynamically linked against a cryptographic library can be
   distributed if it is capable of running without the cryptography library
   or program.


   5. Further copyright considerations

   Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its copyright
   and distribution license in the file 
   /usr/doc/<package-name>/copyright.  This file may not be compressed
   and may not be a symbolic link.  /usr/doc/<package-name> must not
   itself be a symbolic link.  These rules are important because
   copyrights must be extractable by mechanical means.

   Packages distributed under the UCB BSD license, the Artistic license,
   the GNU GPL, and the GNU LPGL should refer to the files
   /usr/doc/copyright/BSD, /usr/doc/copyright/Artistic,
   /usr/doc/copyright/GPL, and /usr/doc/copyright/LGPL.  

   We reserve the right to restrict files from being included anywhere in
   our archives if

      - their use or distribution would break a law,

      - there is an ethical conflict in their distribution or use,

      - we would have to sign a license for them, or

      - their distribution would conflict with other project policies.
-- 
Can you get your operating system fixed when you need it?
Linux - the supportable operating system. http://www.debian.org/support.html
Bruce Perens K6BP   bruce@pixar.com   510-215-3502


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