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Re: debian/* license of non-free packages



Hi Nick,

On Thu, 10. Jan 05:35 Nick Andrik <nick.andrik@gmail.com> wrote:
[...] 
> My main question is what kind of license should I specify in
> debian/copyright for debian/* ?
> If we assume that the packagers who have worked on this package during
> its lifetime can agree to a license for the packaging part, what are
> the constraints?
 
I am facing the same problem with my package zangband at the moment. The
license is non-free and does not allow copying and distribution for
"profit purposes". I had to update the copyright because of bug 696916
and 696919 and decided to make it clear that the files for debian/* are
free. I had chosen GPL-3+ for these files. 

The package got rejected by the release team who argues that it "is very
likely to make the resulting code undistributable if the debian packaging
includes patches touching the upstream part". [1]

Therefore i have prepared another version and i use the GNU
All-Permissive license now. [2] I hope that this solves the issue but i
haven't got a reply yet. 

On a side note, unace-nonfree also contains patches and the whole
debian directory is made available under the GPL-2+ license.

Maybe a permissive license is better suited then a copyleft license for such
cases.

[1] http://bugs.debian.org/697140
[2] http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/All_002dpermissive-Copying-License.html

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