Perl module license clarification

[Ardo van Rangelrooij <ardo@debian.org>]

Hi,

I would like to get some clarification regarding the use of the
following license statement in Perl modules:

    This is free software, you may use and distribute this module under
    the same terms as Perl itself.

which is then usually followed in the debian/copyright file by (added
by the package maintainer):

    On a Debian system a copy of the Perl license can be found in the file
    '/usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic'.

When I tried to get a Perl module with this license in Debian, I got the
following reason from James Troup for not accepting the above license
statement (and I quote):

    Sorry to be pedantic but the only external files you're meant to
    reference in the copyright file are the common licenses in base-files.
    And saying it's "under the same license as Perl itself" is unhelpful;
    which version of Perl?  What if Perl changes licenses? etc.  I realise
    this may be an upstream thing; if so please ask them to clarify it to
    specify GPL/Artistic explicitly so you can do the same in the
    copyright file.

The majority of the Perl modules use the above license statement, except
for some that use e.g. the GPL.  The use of this license statement is
even explicitly suggested by e.g. perlmodlib(1) and pod2man(1), making
using the license a practice endorsed and accepted by the Perl community.

I would like to know what exactly the issue here is, and which course of
action to take to eliviate this issue.

Thanks,
Ardo
-- 
Ardo van Rangelrooij
home email: ardo@debian.org
home page:  http://people.debian.org/~ardo
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