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Re: how (not) to write copyright files



On Sun, Dec 14, 2003 at 03:29:09PM +0100, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> [I intent to send this to debian-devel-announce, please tell me if I'm
>  completely wrong]
> 
> Hi,
> 
> when reviewing several NMs' packages I came accross many broken
> copyright files in recent weeks.  Upon investigation I found that many
> (many!) copyright files in the archives are not really any better.
> 
> This is an example on how _NOT_ to do it:
[snip lacking copyright file]
> 
> This lacks some quite important information:
> 
> - who owns the copyright.  This must give the year and the copyright
>   owner.

This is a serious bug. From policy 12.5:

   Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its copyright
   and distribution license in the file
   `/usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright'.  This file must neither be
   compressed nor be a symbolic link.

This is also mentioned in policy 2.3.

> - It does not really say that the software in question is licensed under
>   the GPL, and it loses information like 'GPL v2 or any later version'.

This is true also.

> A proper copyright file looks like this:
> 
> [...]
[snip proper copyright file]

You forgot where the upstream source was obtained, although you might
have included that in the [...].

-- 
Brian M. Carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.ath.cx> 0x560553e7

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