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Re: Yearless copyrights: what do people think?



On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 01:55:02PM +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> Quoting Peter Pentchev (2023-02-22 10:49:30)
> > So I've seen this idea floating around in the past couple of years
> > (and in some places even earlier), but I started doing it for
> > the couple of pieces of software that I am upstream for after reading
> > Daniel Stenberg's blog entry:
> >   https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2023/01/08/copyright-without-years/
> > 
> > And then, a couple of weeks ago, I quietly checked whether
> > the Debian FTP team would be okay with that by uploading two NEW
> > packages without any years mentioned in the debian/copyright file:
> > either upstream or for my Debian packaging. And, lo and behold,
> > they were both accepted (python-parse-stages and python-test-stages).
> > 
> > So how do people feel about this in general, would it be okay for
> > me to start doing it:
> > a) for other packages that I maintain personally, outside any team
> > b) for team-maintained packages (I guess this one might be a per-team
> >    decision, discussed separately on the appropriate lists)
> > 
> > (obviously, I'm not asking for permission or anything; apparently
> >  at least one member of the FTP team is okay with me doing it at
> >  least for some packages. This is more of a "float the idea, see
> >  what people think about doing this more widely, not just me")
[snip useful information]
> As a redistributor I find it a good practice to include most possible
> copyright and licensing information provided by upstream authors,
> exactly because we are doing a service for our users, and it is a slight
> disservice to omit information that upstream put effort into tracking
> and publishing.

Wait, I may have been unclear. I did not mean that I want to omit
the upstream copyright years *when they are there*. And, of course,
if upstream does not specify any copyright years, we cannot invent
any out of thin air. So I guess my question was mainly what people
think about dropping the years in the debian/* copyright notice
(packaging files, patches, etc).

G'luck,
Peter

-- 
Peter Pentchev  roam@ringlet.net roam@debian.org pp@storpool.com
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