www philosophy/philosophy.html links/links.html...

[Brett Smith]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Brett Smith <brett>     08/05/14 17:27:28

Modified files:
        philosophy     : philosophy.html 
        links          : links.html 
Added files:
        philosophy     : free-system-distribution-guidelines.html 

Log message:
        New document: Guidelines for Free System Distributions.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/philosophy.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.272&r2=1.273
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/links/links.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.153&r2=1.154

Patches:
Index: philosophy/philosophy.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/philosophy.html,v
retrieving revision 1.272
retrieving revision 1.273
diff -u -b -r1.272 -r1.273
--- philosophy/philosophy.html  26 Apr 2008 09:28:59 -0000      1.272
+++ philosophy/philosophy.html  14 May 2008 17:22:31 -0000      1.273
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
   <li><a href="/philosophy/15-years-of-free-software.html">15 Years of Free 
Software</a></li>
   <li><a href="/philosophy/free-software-intro.html">Free Software 
movement</a></li>
   <li><a href="/philosophy/your-freedom-needs-free-software.html">Your Freedom 
Needs Free Software</a></li>
+  <li><a 
href="/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">Guidelines for Free 
System Distributions</a></li>
 </ul>
 
 
@@ -966,7 +967,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/04/26 09:28:59 $
+$Date: 2008/05/14 17:22:31 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>

Index: links/links.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/links/links.html,v
retrieving revision 1.153
retrieving revision 1.154
diff -u -b -r1.153 -r1.154
--- links/links.html    11 May 2008 22:52:21 -0000      1.153
+++ links/links.html    14 May 2008 17:27:01 -0000      1.154
@@ -38,7 +38,10 @@
 distributions we know of which only include and only propose free
 software.  They reject non-free applications, non-free programming
 platforms, non-free drivers, or non-free firmware &ldquo;blobs&rdquo;.
-If by mistake they do include any, they remove it.</p>
+If by mistake they do include any, they remove it.  To learn more
+about what makes for a free GNU/Linux distribution, see
+our <a href="/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">Guidelines
+for Free System Distributions</a>.</p>
 
 <p>
 If you know of a distribution that may qualify but isn't listed here,
@@ -91,10 +94,12 @@
 <h3>Other free operating systems</h3>
 
 <p>
-We would especially like to know of other free operating systems
-that have a policy not to include, or recommend, non-free software.
+We would especially like to know of other free operating systems that
+have a policy not to include, or recommend, non-free software.
 Developers of such operating systems that wish us to be aware of their
-system should contact &lt;address@hidden&gt;.
+system should contact &lt;address@hidden&gt;.  These systems also follow
+our <a href="/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">Guidelines
+for Free System Distributions</a>.
 </p>
 
 <ul>
@@ -415,7 +420,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/05/11 22:52:21 $
+$Date: 2008/05/14 17:27:01 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>

Index: philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
===================================================================
RCS file: philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
diff -N philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html 14 May 2008 17:22:27 
-0000      1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title>Guidelines for Free System Distributions - GNU Project - Free Software 
Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Guidelines for Free System Distributions</h2>
+
+<!-- This document uses XHTML 1.0 Strict, but may be served as -->
+<!-- text/html.  Please ensure that markup style considers -->
+<!-- appendix C of the XHTML 1.0 standard. See validator.w3.org. -->
+
+<!-- Please ensure links are consistent with Apache's MultiView. -->
+<!-- Change include statements to be consistent with the relevant -->
+<!-- language, where necessary. -->
+
+<!-- This document was originally written in the Campaigns Wiki, at -->
+<!-- /licensing/writings/free-system-distribution-guidelines.txt. -->
+
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="introduction" name="introduction">Introduction</a></h3>
+<p>The purpose of these guidelines is to help people determine whether or
+not all the information for practical use in a system distribution
+(such as a GNU/Linux distribution) is free, and to help people create
+such distributions.  &quot;Information for practical use&quot; includes
+software, documentation, fonts, and other data that has direct
+functional applications.  It does not include artistic works that have
+no immediate practical purpose, or statements of opinion or judgment.</p>
+<p>These guidelines are not complete.  We have mentioned the issues we
+are aware of now, but we're sure there are more.  We will add them
+when we come across them.</p>
+<p>We would like to thank the Fedora Project for their help in focusing
+these policies, and allowing us to use their own distribution license
+guidelines as a basis for this document.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="license-rules" name="license-rules">License Rules</a></h3>
+<p>All information for practical use in a free distribution must be
+released under an appropriate free license.  We list the ones we have
+evaluated on <a class="reference" href="/licenses/license-list.html">our 
license list</a>, with separate sections for licenses
+that are suitable for software, documentation, fonts, and other useful
+works.  If such a work is released under multiple licenses, at least
+one of which is free, it can be included in the system; the system
+developers just need to follow the terms of the available free
+license(s) when they distribute and/or modify it.</p>
+<p>There's a lot of code in most free system distributions today; the
+amount of effort it would take to audit it all directly is impractical
+for most teams.  In the past, some nonfree code has accidentally been
+included in free system distributions.  We don't de-list distributions
+because of this; instead, we only ask that a distribution put forth a
+good faith effort to avoid including nonfree software, and commit
+itself to removing such programs if they are found later.</p>
+<p>Certain kinds of license situations merit special attention for people
+creating or considering free software distributions; those are
+discussed in the sections below.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="nonfree-firmware" name="nonfree-firmware">Nonfree Firmware</a></h3>
+<p>Some applications and drivers require firmware to function, and
+sometimes that firmware is distributed only in object code form, under
+a nonfree license.  We call these firmware programs &quot;blobs.&quot;  On most
+GNU/Linux systems, you'll typically find these accompanying some
+drivers in the kernel Linux.  Such firmware should be removed from a
+free system distribution.</p>
+<p>Blobs can take many forms.  Sometimes, they will be provided in
+separate files.  Other times, they may be incorporated into the source
+of the driver itself—for example, it could be encoded as a large array
+of numbers.  But no matter how it's encoded, any nonfree firmware
+needs to be removed from a free system.</p>
+<p>(To be clear, not every array of numbers in a driver is firmware.
+It's important to understand the purpose of the data before deciding
+whether or not it's appropriate for a free system.)</p>
+<p>Brian Brazil, Jeff Moe, and Alexandre Oliva have developed a series of
+<a class="reference" 
href="http://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/";>scripts to 
remove nonfree firmware</a> from a stock version of Linux.
+You may find them helpful if you would like to develop your own free
+GNU/Linux distribution.  The complete source for a blob-free version
+of Linux is also available; you can learn more about this from the
+<a class="reference" href="http://directory.fsf.org/project/linux/";>Free 
Software Directory</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="shareware" name="shareware">Shareware</a></h3>
+<p><a class="reference" href="/philosophy/categories.html#shareware">Shareware 
programs are not free software</a>, and should not be
+included in a free system distribution.</p>
+<p>However, it is worth noting that it may be acceptable for a free
+system distribution to distribute files under a shareware license, if
+the information in them doesn't do anything functional.  For example,
+there are some game engines that have been released under the GNU GPL,
+and have accompanying game information—a world map, game graphics, and
+so on—released as shareware.  It is acceptable for a free system
+distribution to include such materials, because they are artistic
+rather than functional.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="documentation" name="documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
+<p>All the documentation in a free system distribution must be released
+under an appropriate free license.  Additionally, it must take care
+not to recommend nonfree software.</p>
+<p>In general, something that helps people who already use nonfree
+software to use the free software better with it is acceptable, but
+something that encourages users of the free software to install
+nonfree software is harmful.</p>
+<p>For example, a free system distribution may have documentation for
+users setting up dual boot systems.  It could explain how to access
+filesystems from the proprietary operating system, import settings
+from it, and so on.  That would be helping people install a free
+system distribution on a machine which already has proprietary
+software, which is good.</p>
+<p>What would be unacceptable is for the documentation to give people
+instructions for installing a nonfree program on the system, or
+mention conveniences they might gain by doing so.</p>
+<p>For a borderline case, a clear and serious exhortation not to use the
+nonfree program would clearly make it acceptable.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="patents" name="patents">Patents</a></h3>
+<p>It is effectively impossible for free software developers and
+distributors to know whether or not a given piece of software
+infringes any patents: there are too many of them, and they're often
+worded so as to obscure their intended application.  In part because
+of this, we don't expect free system distributions to exclude any
+software because of threats from patents.  On the other hand, it's
+also not a problem if a distributor chooses to exclude some software
+to minimize the risk of patent infringement suits against them.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
+<h3><a id="final-notes" name="final-notes">Final Notes</a></h3>
+<p>We list the free system distributions we know about on <a class="reference" 
href="/links/links.html">our links page</a>.  If you know about one that
+isn't listed there, please have the developers write to us at
+&lt;<a class="reference" 
href="mailto:gnu&#64;gnu.org";>gnu&#64;gnu.org</a>&gt;.  If you have questions 
or comments about these
+guidelines themselves, feel free to send those to
+&lt;<a class="reference" 
href="mailto:licensing&#64;gnu.org";>licensing&#64;gnu.org</a>&gt;.  We hope 
this helps everyone better understand
+the issues that are important for free system distributions, and we
+look forward to promoting more of them in the future.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2008/05/14 17:22:27 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="translations">
+<h4>Translations of this page</h4>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical by language code. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is German. -->
+<!-- Write the language name in its own language (Deutsch) in the text. -->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!--  - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!--  - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!--  - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!--  to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the language code right; see: -->
+<!-- http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php -->
+<!-- If the 2-letter ISO 639-1 code is not available, -->
+<!-- use the 3-letter ISO 639-2. -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities. -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a 
href="/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html">English</a>&nbsp;[en]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>