Proposal of a “GNU Social Contract”

This document states the core commitments of the GNU Project to the
broader free software community.  All current GNU Project members
have agreed to uphold these values.


The purpose of the GNU Project is to provide software and systems that
respect users' freedoms.

* GNU respects users' freedoms

We provide software that guarantees to users the four essential freedoms,
without compromise:
  0. The freedom to run the program as they wish, for any purpose.
  1. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does
     their computing as they wish.
     Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  2. The freedom to redistribute copies so they can help others.
  3. The freedom to distribute copies of their modified versions to others.
     By doing this they can give the whole community a chance to benefit
     from their changes.
     Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

All software written by us is distributed under copyleft licenses, designed
to ensure that developers cannot strip off users' freedom from GNU software.

Besides upholding the four essential freedoms, we pay attention and respond
to new threats to users' freedom as they arise, such as services as a
software substitute (SaaSS), use of non-free scripts on web pages, mass
surveillance, digital restrictions management (DRM), etc.


* GNU provides consistent systems

We develop an operating system and a set of applications, in the form of
GNU packages.  GNU package developers work together to ensure consistency
across packages.  GNU packages follow the design and development guidelines
of the GNU Project.


* GNU collaborates with the broader free software community

Free software has extended beyond the GNU Project, and we work with
companion free software projects that develop key components of our system.
We aim to extend the reach of free software to new fields.


* GNU welcomes contributions from all and everyone

We want to give everyone the opportunity to contribute to our efforts
on any of the many tasks that require work.  We welcome all contributors,
regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, level of
experience, or any other personal characteristics.  We commit to providing
a harassment-free experience for all our contributors.