Re: STklos packaging -- status and a question
Jeronimo Pellegrini <j_p@aleph0.info> writes:
>>> * licensing:
>>>
>>> should be fine, but there is a mix of GPLv3, GPLv2 and
>>> SRFI (BSD-like) licensing. STklos itself is GPLv2, but SRFIs and
>>> some modules have different licenses.
>>> I'll be working on that.
>>
>> If parts are "version 2 or later" and other parts are "version 3 or
>> later" it should be fine, we will then be distributing it under version
>> 3. If some parts are only "version 2" then we might have a problem.
>> Thanks for working on this!
>
> It is "2 or later" and "3 or later", so there hsouldbe no problems.
>
> Now some questions -- suppose I have a file that is released onder the
> usual SRFI license, and I change parts of it and claim that I am
> redistributing my changes under GPLv3 (this is actually the case).
>
> What license may we distribute it under?
The usual SRFI license, being the "Expat" (MIT) license? IIUC, you might
write "GPL-3+ and Expat" in debian/copyright for such files. For the
debian/copyright file it doesn't matter which license is the one we
distribute under, what matters is the information about which licenses
we need to comply with. In this case it's both. The Expat/MIT license is
very permissive, but it does require that we include the copyright
notice and the license text.
(What actually then happens when we distribute modified copies under the
GPLv3 is that we also have to license the entire work under the GPLv3
(see §5c), even the parts that are Expat/MIT. But that isn't very
relevant for the debian/copyright file.)
Do be careful about older copies of SRFIs, which used a very restrictive
license.
> And how many lines of modifications to a prorgam would it be necessary
> to say that the authorship of the modification is relevant?
Use your best judgment. Usually it doesn't come up in Debian contexts
because upstream has already put a license on it that they feel is
appropriate. (You could put GPLv3 at the top of a file with Expat/MIT
code, without changing a line, if you liked).
--
Göran Weinholt | https://weinholt.se/
Debian Developer | 73 de SA6CJK
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