Re: Fixing old-fsf-address-in-copyright-file

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> writes:

> Seems obvious to me that it is asking you to update the debian
> copyright file only.

That will satisfy Lintian, yes, but only because Lintian can't
reasonably test whether the upstream license grant matches what's in
the ‘debian/copyright’.

> Common sense seems to indicate that you should also communicate with
> your upstream and ask them to change the address where they mention
> it.

After updating the ‘debian/copyright’, upstream will take an unknown
period of time to update their license grant text to match; some may
never do it. During that period, it would nevertheless be desirable to
upload new Debian releases of the package when needed.

If we distribute a package with ‘debian/copyright’ so that it
deliberately differs from upstream in this regard, are we not
violating policy §12.5 “Every package must be accompanied by a
verbatim copy of its copyright and distribution license in the file
`/usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright'.”?

I don't know if I'm content with package maintainers deciding on
behalf of upstream to re-word their license grant texts.

-- 
 \       “Crime is contagious… if the government becomes a lawbreaker, |
  `\          it breeds contempt for the law.” —Justice Louis Brandeis |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney