Draft resolution formalising Debian's Associated Project status

[Joshua D. Drake]

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Ted,
> 
>> If however the SPI is responsible for making a judgement call about
>> the murky nature of Debian politics, particularly since certain
>> aspects of Debian's policies and procedures are not necessarily
>> clearly defined (or at least subject to dispute leading to mailing
>> list flames that go on and on for hundreds of messages) from a legal
>> point of view, then SPI could get dragged into what could be a nasty,
>> and potentially arbitrarily expensive legal adjucation procedure. 
> 
> I'm not so worried about legal culpability (how would Debian sue SPI when SPI 
> provides Debian's legal help?).  However, I *am* worried about making the 
> wrong decision, and pissing off the "winners" in a long-running Debian 
> dispute, and thus causing Debian members to distrust  SPI and call for 
> pulling out.  This is *directly* based on my experience with the Dunc-Tank 
> proposal.
> 
> I really don't think that MJ and Ian realize how opaque and chaotic Debian 
> politics are to outsiders.

I would second that. When I researched the OpenSource.Org domain issue, 
I was stunned at how convoluted and emotional everything was. Debian has 
really appears to have grown (at least from an outsider view) into a 
very political self spinning organization.

Joshua D. Drake