GNU Coding Standards - News

ftp uploads now require an explicit replace directive to replace an existing file.  (v1.2 of the ftp upload protocol.)  See the
node "FTP Upload Directive File - v1.2", aka
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/FTP-Upload-Directive-File-_002d-v1_002e2.html.

Also, v1.0 directives are no longer supported.

Our friends at the Software Freedom Law Center have just informed us
that the FSF can safely accept scanned copies of signed assignments from
U.S. residents. We are also looking into the possibility of this working
for foreign contributors as well, but for now it is limited to U.S. [...]

As long as information is not lost, it is now ok to use ranges in copyright years.  Specifically: 1) every year in the range, inclusive, really must be a ``copyrightable'' year that would be listed individually; and 2) you make an explicit statement in a @file{README} file about this usage.

http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Copyright-Notices.html has been updated.

The primary distribution site for GNU packages should allow access from anyone (for instance, without excluding any country).

The licenses of the GNU coding standards and maintainer documents have been upgraded to GNU FDL version 1.3 or later.  Other GNU documentation using the FDL should do the same at the next release.  See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html.