Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking

Social Contract was composed as well as an existing desire to ground Debian’s shared moral commitments within technical pragmatism. At the time the charter was drafted, there were a number of important software applications like browsers and word processors that simply had no robust free software equivalent. For example, while Netscape existed and was free as in beer, it was not free as in speech; the source was unavailable for use, modification, and circulation.
    Following the creation of free software equivalents to these programs over the years, Debian has routinely debated dropping its support of nonfree programs; this has even led to a “General Resolution” (resolutions are voted on by the entire project) to eliminate such programs. A resolution in March 2004 reaffirmed Debian’s commitment to this provision, though given the voluminous debate it generated, it is an issue that I imagine willbe revisited again in the near future. Drawing the line between pragmatism and utility, on the one hand, and ideological purity, on the other, is a task that Debian developers are constantly struggling with, as we will see later in this chapter.
    The DFSG is the legal corollary to the Social Contract. For a license to meet the standard of free, it must meet the following criteria:
    1. 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.
    2. Source Code
    The program must include source code and also allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
    3. Derived Works
    The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the original software’s license.
    4. 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 the 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.
    5. No Discrimination against Persons or Groups
    The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
    6. 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 for genetic research.
    7. Distribution of License
    The rights attached to the program must apply to everyone to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
    8. 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 otherwisewithin 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.
    9. 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.
    The DFSG both generalizes and specifies the GPL’s four freedoms (access, use, modification, and distribution). It generalizes them so that the DFSG can act as a pragmatic standard to determine the relative “freeness of a license” or as the baseline to create a new license. At the same time, it specifies the meanings of freedom, largely by including an explicit language of nondiscrimination—one of the document’s most salient themes. The DFSG has been assiduously excavated for discussion and debate on Debian legal and other mailing lists to help developers decide whether a piece of software they want to package and maintain has a DFSG license, or what changes to an existing license need to be made to make it DFSG free (to be explored in the next chapter).
    Along with these two seminal documents, Debian also has an explicit Constitution, which