Quoting Markus Koschany (2013-01-10 11:11:30) > 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. I agree that patches need be compatible with the code the patches are applied onto, which for some non-free works cannot be a copyleft one. But you may not be copyright holder of said patches so cannot ahead choose a liberal license either. To me it makes sense to always declare a "Files: debian/*" section explicitly (except for Debian-native packages), and if patches are differently licensed (either because others did the licensing or because you did and are forced to license in a certain way to match wher it is applied) then additionally add a "Files: debian/patches/*" section. I always place debian sections as the last Files sections, like this: Files: * Copyright: [upstream] License: [non-free] ... Files: debian/* Copyright: [our team] License: [copyleft] Files: debian/patches/* Copyright: [our team or whoever actually holds copyright] License: [permissive or whatever others actually issued] (and then I place all License sections below that - I find that easiest to read, but that's outside of this discussion). - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
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