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#use wml::debian::template title="Debian Social Contract, Version 1.0" BARETITLE=true
# Original document: contract.html
# Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
# Created On : Wed Jul 2 12:47:56 1997
<p>Version 1.0 ratified on July 5, 1997.</p>
<p>Superseded by
<a href="social_contract.1.1">Version 1.1</a> ratified on April 26, 2004,
and the <a href="social_contract">current version 1.2</a> ratified on
October 1st, 2022.</p>
<p>Debian, the producers of the Debian GNU/Linux system, have created the
<strong>Debian Social Contract</strong>. The <a href="#guidelines">Debian Free Software
Guidelines (DFSG)</a> 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
<a href="https://opensource.org/docs/osd">Open Source Definition</a>.
<HR>
<h2>"Social Contract" with the Free Software Community</h2>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Debian Will Remain 100% Free Software</strong>
<p>We promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution
entirely free software. As there are many definitions of
free software, we include the guidelines we use to determine
if software is "<em>free</em>" below. We will support our
users who develop and run non-free software on Debian, but
we will never make the system depend on an item of non-free
software.</p>
<li><strong>We Will Give Back to the Free Software Community</strong>
<p>When we write new components of the Debian system, we will
license them as free software. We will make the best system
we can, so that free software will be widely distributed and
used. We will feed back bug-fixes, improvements, user
requests, etc. to the "<em>upstream</em>" authors of software
included in our system.</p>
<li><p><strong>We Won't Hide Problems</strong>
<p>We will keep our entire bug-report database open for public
view at all times. Reports that users file on-line will
immediately become visible to others.</p>
<li><p><strong>Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software</strong>
<p>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
environment. We won't object to commercial software that is
intended to run on Debian systems, and we'll allow others to
create value-added distributions containing both Debian and
commercial software, without any fee from us. To support
these goals, we will provide an integrated system of
high-quality, 100% free software, with no legal restrictions
that would prevent these kinds of use.</p>
<li><p><strong>Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards</strong>
<p>We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of
programs that don't conform to the
<a href="#guidelines">Debian Free Software Guidelines</a>.
We have created "<tt>contrib</tt>" and "<tt>non-free</tt>"
areas in our FTP archive for this software. The software in
these directories is not part of the Debian system, although
it has been configured for use with Debian. We encourage CD
manufacturers to read the licenses of software packages in
these directories and determine if they can distribute that
software on their CDs. Thus, although non-free software
isn't a part of Debian, we support its use, and we provide
infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing
lists) for non-free software packages.
</ol>
<HR>
<h2 id="guidelines">The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)</h2>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Free Redistribution</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>Source Code</strong>
<p>The program must include source code, and must allow
distribution in source code as well as compiled
form.</p>
<li><p><strong>Derived Works</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>Integrity of The Author's Source Code</strong>
<p>The license may restrict source-code from being distributed
in modified form <strong>only</strong> if the license allows
the distribution of "<tt>patch files</tt>" 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. (<em>This is a
compromise. The Debian group encourages all authors not to
restrict any files, source or binary, from being
modified.</em>)</p>
<li><p><strong>No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups</strong>
<p>The license must not discriminate against any person or
group of persons.</p>
<li><p><strong>No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>Distribution of License</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>License Must Not Be Specific to Debian</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>License Must Not Contaminate Other Software</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<li><p><strong>Example Licenses</strong>
<p>The "<strong><a href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a></strong>",
"<strong><a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">BSD</a></strong>", and
"<strong><a href="https://perldoc.perl.org/perlartistic.html">Artistic</a></strong>"
licenses are examples of licenses that we consider "<em>free</em>".
</ol>
<p><em>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
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-announce/debian-announce-1997/msg00017.html">\
accepted</a> as the publicly stated policy of the Debian Project.</em></p>
<p><em>Bruce Perens later removed the Debian-specific references from the
Debian Free Software Guidelines to create
<a href="https://opensource.org/docs/definition.php">“The Open
Source Definition”</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Other organizations may derive from and build on this document.
Please give credit to the Debian project if you do.</em>
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