Debian Social Contract

Debian Social Contract
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Debian Social Contract
Debian Social Contract
Version 1.2 ratified on October 1st, 2022.
Supersedes
Version 1.1
ratified on April 26th, 2004,
and
Version 1.0
ratified on July 5, 1997.
Debian, the producers of the Debian system, have created the
Debian Social Contract
. The
Debian Free Software
Guidelines (DFSG)
part of the contract, initially designed
as a set of commitments that we agree to abide by, has been adopted by
the free software community as the basis of the
Open Source Definition
Social Contract
with the Free Software Community
Debian will remain 100% free
We provide the guidelines that we use to determine if a work
is
free
in the document entitled
The Debian Free
Software Guidelines
. We promise that the Debian system and
all its components will be free according to these
guidelines. We will support people who create or use both
free and non-free works on Debian. We will never make the
system require the use of a non-free component.
We will give back to the free software community
When we write new components of the Debian system, we will
license them in a manner consistent with the Debian Free
Software Guidelines. We will make the best system we can,
so that free works will be widely distributed and used. We
will communicate things such as bug fixes, improvements and
user requests to the
upstream
authors of works
included in our system.
We will not hide problems
We will keep our entire bug report database open for public
view at all times. Reports that people file online will
promptly become visible to others.
Our priorities are our users and free software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free
software community. We will place their interests first in
our priorities. We will support the needs of our users for
operation in many different kinds of computing
environments. We will not object to non-free works that are
intended to be used on Debian systems, or attempt to charge
a fee to people who create or use such works. We will allow
others to create distributions containing both the Debian
system and other works, without any fee from us. In
furtherance of these goals, we will provide an integrated
system of high-quality materials with no legal restrictions
that would prevent such uses of the system.
Works that do not meet our free software standards
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of
works that do not conform to the Debian Free Software
Guidelines. We have created
contrib
and
non-free
areas in our archive for these
works. The packages in these areas are not part of the
Debian system, although they have been configured for use
with Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the
licenses of the packages in these areas and determine if
they can distribute the packages on their CDs. Thus,
although non-free works are not a part of Debian, we support
their use and provide infrastructure for non-free packages
(such as our bug tracking system and mailing lists). The Debian
official media may include firmware that is otherwise not part
of the Debian system to enable use of Debian with hardware that
requires such firmware.
The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)
Free Redistribution
The license of a Debian component may not restrict any
party from selling or giving away the software as a
component of an aggregate software distribution containing
programs from several different sources. The license may not
require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow
distribution in source code as well as compiled
form.
Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and
must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as
the license of the original software.
Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed
in modified form
only
if the license allows
the distribution of
patch files
with the source
code for the purpose of modifying the program at build
time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of
software built from modified source code. The license may
require derived works to carry a different name or version
number from the original software. (
This is a
compromise. The Debian group encourages all authors not to
restrict any files, source or binary, from being
modified.
No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or
group of persons.
No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the
program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may
not restrict the program from being used in a business, or
from being used for genetic research.
Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to
whom the program is redistributed without the need for
execution of an additional license by those
parties.
License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the
program's being part of a Debian system. If the program is
extracted from Debian and used or distributed without Debian
but otherwise within the terms of the program's license, all
parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the
same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with
the Debian system.
License Must Not Contaminate Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software
that is distributed along with the licensed
software. For example, the license must not insist that all
other programs distributed on the same medium must be free
software.
Example Licenses
The
GPL
BSD
, and
Artistic
licenses are examples of licenses that we consider
free
The concept of stating our
social contract with the free
software community
was suggested by Ean Schuessler. This document
was drafted by Bruce Perens, refined by the other Debian developers
during a month-long e-mail conference in June 1997, and then
accepted
as the publicly stated policy of the Debian Project.
Bruce Perens later removed the Debian-specific references from the
Debian Free Software Guidelines to create
The Open
Source Definition
Other organizations may derive from and build on this document.
Please give credit to the Debian project if you do.
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Last Modified: Wed, Oct 5 01:47:24 UTC 2022