Governance and Stewardship

This document defines how the Declaration of Private Generative Rights is stewarded, revised, and preserved over time.

The purpose of governance is not control, enforcement, or authority. It is continuity, integrity, and ethical clarity.

1. Stewardship, not ownership

The Declaration of Private Generative Rights is not owned.

It is stewarded to preserve:

Textual integrity
Ethical continuity
Public trust
Historical traceability

Stewardship does not grant the power to enforce, certify, or compel adoption. It grants only the responsibility to protect meaning.

2. Scope of governance

Governance applies only to:

The canonical text (DECLARATION.md)
Official versioning
Public change records
Adoption language consistency

Governance does not apply to:

How others interpret the declaration
Whether organizations adopt or reject it
Legal enforcement or compliance
Private derivative frameworks (when clearly labeled)

3. Versioning principles

The declaration uses semantic versioning, interpreted ethically:

Patch versions (v1.0.x)
Clarifications, typographical corrections, formatting changes
No change in meaning or scope
Minor versions (v1.x.0)
Additive clarifications, new articles, or expanded commentary
Must not contradict prior principles
Major versions (v2.0.0)
Ethical re-foundation
Reserved for rare, explicit, and publicly documented shifts

No version may retroactively invalidate prior adoptions.

Adoption is bound to the version in effect at the time of adoption.

4. Change proposals

Any proposed change to the canonical text must include:

A clear description of the proposed change
A rationale explaining why the change is necessary
An explicit statement of whether the change is:
- Clarifying
- Additive
- Foundational

Proposals must be publicly visible before adoption.

5. Cooling-off period

To prevent reactive or political drift:

All non-trivial changes require a public cooling-off period
The minimum cooling-off period is 30 days
During this time, feedback may be received and documented

Urgency is not sufficient justification for bypassing this process.

6. Emergency clarifications

Emergency updates are permitted only to correct:

Factual errors
Broken references
Ambiguities that materially misrepresent intent

Emergency updates may not:

Introduce new principles
Remove protections
Narrow ethical scope

All emergency changes must be logged explicitly.

7. Transparency and changelog

Every modification to the declaration must be recorded in CHANGELOG.md, including:

Version number
Date
Nature of change
Summary of impact

No change may be silent. No change may be backdated.

8. Divergent versions

Derivative or modified versions of the declaration are permitted.

However:

They must be clearly labeled as divergent
They may not use the original title without qualification
They may not imply endorsement or stewardship authority

Divergence is ethical. Silent mutation is not.

9. Stewardship continuity

If stewardship must pass to new maintainers:

The transition must be publicly documented
No change in ethical scope may occur during transition
Historical versions must remain permanently accessible

Stewardship exists to preserve trust across time, not to concentrate power.

10. Final principle

This declaration is governed to resist erosion, not to accelerate change.

Ethics gains authority through consistency, not speed. Legitimacy arises from restraint, not control.

Governance is not the power to decide what is right.
It is the discipline to prevent meaning from being quietly rewritten.