Re: New maintainer

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

GNU Emacs is part of the GNU Project, which is a technical project
with a specific political aim: software freedom for all users.  This
goal includes all the software they use, not just the specific programs
we develop.

The GNU Emacs maintainer's responsibility is to take charge of Emacs
on behalf of the GNU Project, and produce the best possible GNU Emacs
-- which means, the one that advances our aim the most.

Mostly, making Emacs better is a matter of practical improvements, but
there are some exceptions.  The maintainer's responsibility includes
some tasks to support the GPL, both practically and politically.  It
includes getting copyright papers from contributors so we can enforce
the GPL.  It includes making sure dynamic loading resists GPL
violation.  It includes putting some GNU Project political statements
into Emacs.  It includes making sure nothing in Emacs disagrees with
them.  An Emacs maintainer has to be willing to undertake this part of
the responsibility as well as the politically neutral bulk of the
responsibility.

The maintainer's job does not include personal political statements.
Maintainers don't have to say they agree with the GNU Project's
political positions, they just have to implement them wholeheartedly.

However, a maintainer shouldn't publicly oppose our positions.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.