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

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

Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> writes:

> I think being more explicit in this section would clearly be useful.
> What do you think it should say and why?

I think the ‘debian/copyright’ file should record Debian's claim of:

* the license terms under which Debian and its recipients receive and
  may redistribute the work; and

* whatever specifically in the original source archive gives us
  supporting evidence for our claim of license in the work.


In practice, that means:

* explicit, unambiguous statements of which parties hold copyright in
  the work (this is so that interested parties can at least attempt to
  verify if our claim meets the copyright holder's understanding of
  the granted license), and when that copyright begins (this is so
  that the reader can know when the work will no longer be restricted
  by copyright, on the theory that copyrights expire). In other words,
  full UCC-style copyright statements including full years and legal
  entity names.

* explicit, unambiguous text from the copyright holder granting
  license, and the specific extent of that license within the work as
  distributed in Debian (i.e. what files are covered by the grant).

* the exact license terms granted by the copyright holder in the
  covered part of the work, or a reference to those terms in
  /usr/share/common-licenses/.

-- 
 \                   “The best ad-libs are rehearsed.” —Graham Kennedy |
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_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney