"Andre Felipe Machado" <andremachado@techforce.com.br> wrote in message news:1226273973.4335.5.camel@localhost.localdomain...
Hello, The most recent source package could be downloaded from http://packages.qa.debian.org/a/apt.html For convenience, attached is the file to be analyzed (COPYING).
Please, what are the possible consequences of removing the Qt portion or leaving the file as it is?
Concequences includes a slightly smaller package size. That is about the extent of it. You are obligated to supply a copyright and license notice no less valid than the one you were given, and to follow any other terms of the license. The license in this case, does request that notices that refer to it be kept intact, but that applies only the the first section of the notice in the COPYING file. The rest is a notice of other terms, which are no longer in force. The GPL does not require that notices refering to other licenses must be kept intact.
Since the other notice no longer applies, if you remove it the remaining notice is still no less valid, so all your obligations are satified. Therefore, it is perfectly safe to remove the old section refering to Qt.
There are no legal consequences for doing so, only practical consequences, such as having a smaller and easier to read COPYING file.
IANAL, IANADD