Re: A summary of some open discussions

[Mike Gerwitz]

On Thu, Jan 16, 2020 at 12:23:26 -0500, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> So while they provide infrastructure, and legal advice, etc, it is for
> our needs.  They do not do any type of oversight, or anything similar
> that we follow the software freedom mission.  That falls on the
> responsibility of the Chief GNUisance.

Yes, this is what I meant.  I've volunteered in an administrative role
for the GNU Project for a number of years now---with the authority to
appoint comaintainers to existing packages---and never has the FSF
attempted to exercise any type of control over GNU's governance.

FSF does have authority over things we delegate to them entirely, such as
copyright assignments and trademark enforcement; system administration;
and such.  But that doesn't give them authority over our other procedures.

I've had a personal relationship with a number of people at the FSF over
the years, including John Sullivan, and I've never gotten the impression
that they had desire to exercise control over GNU.  In fact, a current
FSF employee is a GNU maintainer, and that employee is treated the same
as any other maintainer.

John Sullivan is on the GNU Advisory Committee.  There he provides
advise to rms, but it's just that---rms can choose whether or not he
wishes to heed his advise.

-- 
Mike Gerwitz

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