www/distros free-system-distribution-guidelines...

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /webcvs/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       09/05/25 04:25:09

Modified files:
        distros        : free-system-distribution-guidelines.html 

Log message:
        Move definition of "information for practical use" into License Rules.
        New section "Commitment to Correct Mistakes".

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.3&r2=1.4

Patches:
Index: free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /webcvs/www/www/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html,v
retrieving revision 1.3
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -b -r1.3 -r1.4
--- free-system-distribution-guidelines.html    19 May 2009 19:33:13 -0000      
1.3
+++ free-system-distribution-guidelines.html    25 May 2009 04:24:24 -0000      
1.4
@@ -16,14 +16,9 @@
 
 <div class="section">
 <h3 id="introduction">Introduction</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.  &ldquo;Information for practical use&rdquo;
-includes software, documentation, fonts, and other data that has
-direct functional applications.  It does not include artistic works
-that have an aesthetic (rather than functional) purpose, or statements
-of opinion or judgment.</p>
+<p>The purpose of these guidelines is to explain what it means for a
+system distribution (such as a GNU/Linux distribution) to qualify as free,
+and help distro developers make their distros qualify.
 <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>
@@ -33,6 +28,11 @@
 </div>
 <div class="section">
 <h3 id="license-rules">License Rules</h3>
+<p> &ldquo;Information for practical use&rdquo;
+includes software, documentation, fonts, and other data that has
+direct functional applications.  It does not include artistic works
+that have an aesthetic (rather than functional) purpose, or statements
+of opinion or judgment.</p>
 <p>All information for practical use in a free distribution must be
 available in source form.  (&ldquo;Source&rdquo; means the form of the
 information that is preferred for making changes to it.)</p>
@@ -161,6 +161,16 @@
 software in order to avoid patent risk.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section">
+<h3 id="mistakes">Commitment to Correct Mistakes</h3>
+<p>To check a whole distribution prefectly on these criteria is beyond
+the resources of most distro development teams and also beyond our
+resources.  So we expect developers to occasionally make mistakes that
+let some non-free software slip through, and we don't reject a distro
+just for that.  What is crucial is for the distro developers to have a
+firm commitment to promptly correct any mistakes that are reported to
+them.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section">
 <h3 id="final-notes">Final Notes</h3>
 
 <p>We list the free system distributions we know about
@@ -217,7 +227,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2009/05/19 19:33:13 $
+$Date: 2009/05/25 04:24:24 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>