Re: Does Debian itself have a license?
Hong Xu <hong@topbug.net> writes:
> The metadata of packages include information package descriptions,
> dependencies, etc. that were created by Debian developers.
Thanks for clarifying. Okay, that seems to describe the Debian packaging
files, a work that sometimes is part of the upstream work but often is a
separate work combined with the upstream work.
> It seems to me that the copyright file of package does not describe
> the license of this information since the copyright holder seems to be
> always the upstream copyright holders.
You're right to question this. The files that constitute Debian
packaging often have copyright held by parties different from the
upstream work.
In those (many) cases, the distinct copyright information for the Debian
packaging should be described explicitly in the source package's
‘debian/copyright’ (and therefore be installed as part of the binary
packages created from that source).
> For example, /usr/share/doc/bash/copyright reads "Copyright (C)
> 1987-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc." Although the author of the
> packaging "Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>" is mentioned, there is no
> license claimed for his packaging work.
I consider that to be a bug worthy of reporting. (The absence of
explicit grant of license for the packaging work is a violation of
Debian Policy §4.5.)
It will be a bug that many packages in Debian have, so you might want to
co-ordinate a response. After discussion you might find the response
is “this isn't urgent because it has been this way for decades”. Or you
might find a different consensus.
Be aware of the Debian Developer's Reference guidance on reporting a bug
to many packages at once (in brief: don't until you discuss it with the
package maintainers and achieve consensus)
<URL:https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch07.en.html#submit-many-bugs>.
> As far as I know, there are a lot of cases where default configuration
> files in Debian are handcrafted, either from scratch or modified from
> those in the upstream package.
The copyright document for a package must (Debian Policy §4.5) contain
comprehensive copyright information for all the package, whether
originating from upstream or from Debian maintainers or anywhere else.
So I think that every part of Debian is required to have its copyright
information declared explicitly in the ‘copyright’ document of one or
more installed packages on the system.
If you know of an exception, let's discuss that; otherwise I think the
response is to talk about specific packages that fail to meet that
requirement.
--
\ “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I |
`\ was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.” |
_o__) —Groucho Marx |
Ben Finney
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