# every.channel Constitution

1. Mission

Make broadcast television universally reachable.

Build a global, disaggregated network of relays that lets anyone, anywhere, watch every.channel on any device, for free.

2. Principles

These are non-negotiable. Amendments require explicit constitutional process.

- **Free access.** No paywalls or tiers for viewing or participation. Donations and grants are welcome.
- **Public-first.** Broadcast spectrum is public. The network exists to expand public access and reduce artificial scarcity.
- **User sovereignty.** Nodes are user-run, user-owned, and programmable. Leaving the network must be as easy as joining it.
- **Resilient by design.** The system must tolerate takedowns, failures, and hostile pressure without losing the whole.
- **Transparent operation.** Source, protocols, and governance are public. Hidden control planes are not acceptable.
- **Composable layers.** The system is built from separable components so multiple implementations can coexist.

3. Infrastructure

**The project controls its own infrastructure.** CI, deployment, and secrets are defined in this repository.

External services may be used when practical but must not create dependencies that prevent independent operation.

4. Contributor Conduct

- Non-trivial changes require a written proposal in `evolution/proposals/` referencing this constitution.
- Capture decisions and rationale in the repository. If it is not written down, it did not happen.
- When tradeoffs appear, prefer choices that maximize user control and network resiliency.
- Security-sensitive changes require senior contributor review.

5. Governance

- ECP (every.channel proposals) is the legislative process.
- Senior contributors are named in `CONTRIBUTORS.md`.
- All changes merge through pull requests.
- Constitutional amendments require a dedicated ECP quoting the affected section with explicit rationale.

6. Origin

This constitution implements the intent of the every.channel genesis documents.