Re: License of binary packages

[Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>]

Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org> writes:
> I am not aware of any update on the matter: I suppose the determination
> of the effective licenses of binary packages is still something to be
> done manually.
>
> I hope this answers Ole's question, although maybe in a disappointing
> way...

I am not sure if this is legally so simple: As far as I understand
licensing, it is the way to allow others to use the product (sorry for
unprofessional wording here; I am not at all a specialist in that).

That means, that as long as we don't allow someone to use a binary
package, he is neither allowed to copy it, nor to use it in any way. We
(Debian) must grant him some rights.

Currently, I don't see that we do that anywhere. debian/copyright refers
only to sources, not to binaries.

Also, the license of the binary is not (always) an unambigious result of
the source packages: a BSD only licensed source file may also end up in
a GPL licensed binary. or the binary of a GPL-2+ source could itseld
licensed as GPL-3+. Generally, Debian may add additional restrictions to
a binary, as long as they are conform to the source license(s) and the
DFSG. My personal understanding of Debian liberalism is that we don't,
but I couldn't find a definitive statement for that.

So, I think, of we offer binary packages, we must clearly define the
conditions of this offer Otherwise the offer is not (legally) valid. Or
am I too naive here?

Best regards

Ole