Re: Why do we list individual copyright holders?
Vincent Bernat <bernat@debian.org> writes:
> ❦ 22 décembre 2017 19:58 -0800, Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> :
>> I just found a few packages under Apache 2.0 that didn't distribute the
>> NOTICE file. It turned out that the same information was in
>> debian/copyright, but that may not be the case in the future.
>> I'll file a wishlist bug against Lintian to check for a NOTICE file in
>> packages that say they're under Apache 2.0 and warn if it's not
>> included in the binary package.
> 4.d also says NOTICE can be distributed in the source form when it is
> distributed along the derivative work (which is our case).
People keep thinking this, and in a very strict and limited sense it's
sort of true, but it's not usefully true. While Debian ourselves always
at least arguably has source alongside binaries (we have images without
the source, but the source is available from the same site), the project
has always allowed downstream distributors of binary-only images, and our
binary images (like netinst USB sticks) are intended to be widely
redistributable without worrying about loading source onto the same image.
It would be highly surprising, and rather rude, to those distributors if
suddenly their work was in violation of licenses because we stopped
complying with licenses unless source was distributed alongside.
(They obviously have to provide an offer of source or point to our
available source if they don't include source, due to all of the GPL code
we have, but that's much easier.)
> Unrelated, but I am developing some kind of "lintian fatigue". People
> may find helpful to let Lintian warn about every little thing.
I am one of those people -- I find it insanely useful, rely on it heavily,
and would be extremely upset if it ever went away.
> Each time I have to update a package, I have new lintian notices and/or
> warnings. Sometimes Lintian is right, sometimes it's not. Most of the
> time, this is quite pointless for me.
Turn down the thresholds?
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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