Re: Maintainers Guide (was: How (not) to write copyright files - take two)

[Jeremy Stanley <fungi@yuggoth.org>]

On Sun, Mar 26, 2006 at 08:48:31PM +0200, Nico Golde wrote:
> * Joerg Jaspert <joerg@debian.org> [2006-03-26 20:31]:
> > A while ago Peter 'weasel' Palfrader wrote a nice little "How (not) to
> > write copyright files"[1]. Please read that *now*.
> > 
> > [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2003/12/msg00007.html 
> 
> [...]
> Why not add this to the New Maintainers Guide instead of 
> forcing Applicants to search the mailing list archive for 
> this?

Furthermore, the format given in the message is dissimilar from what
dh_make (0.40) gives right now. The default is...

   This package was debianized by Jeremy Stanley <fungi@yuggoth.org> on
   Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:12:01 +0000.

   It was downloaded from <fill in ftp site>

   Copyright Holder: <put author(s) name and email here>

   License:

   <Put the license of the package here>

...with no dates of copyright and no implication (in the template)
that they should be included either (related to "resolved" bug
336982). If the bulk of new maintainers are creating their packages
based on dh_make's templates, I expect many copyright files will
lack years (well, one would hope their sponsors would catch this). I
would happily submit a (trivial) patch for it, except that this
appears to be intentional for reasons I'm currently unable to
fathom. The original submitter indicates (among other things):

   This has to include a copyright year, also.

...and following additional discussion, the resolution is:

   After considering the suggestion, I have decided to close this
   bug.

Section 4.2 of maint-guide (1.2.7) shows the slightly different
"Copyright:" in place of "License:" and gives an example including
"the complete copyright notice," so hopefully more clueful
first-time packagers won't be bitten by the vagueness in the
template.
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