As an additional comment, I currently maintain Electrum. Upstream is licensed Expat. Previous maintainers licensed their debian/* contributions GPLv3+. When I took over the package, I started working closely with upstream and wanted to contribute patches and other files, like AppSream metainfo to them.
To do this, I wanted all of my new contributions to debian/* to be licensed under Expat when I was the sole author of the file, and dual licensed under GPLv3+ and Expat when I was editing an existing file. I indicated that in the following way:
Files: debian/*
Copyright: 2013-2015 Vasudev Kamath <kamathvasudev@gmail.com>
2013 Gregor Herrmann <gregoa@debian.org>
2013-2021 Tristan Seligmann <mithrandi@debian.org>
2019-2020 Laurent Bigonville <bigon@debian.org>
2022 Bastian Germann <bage@debian.org>
2022-2024 Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org>
License: GPL-3+
Comment:
The following copyright holders additionally license their
contributions to debian/* under the Expat license so that
if all other listed contributors agree it can be relicensed
under Expat, which is the license used by upstream and makes it
easier for contributions to be upstreamed when appropriate:
Soren Stoutner, Bastian Germann.
Files: debian/electrum.1
Copyright: 2023-2024 Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org>
License: Expat
Files: debian/patches/*
Copyright: 2022-2024 Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org>
License: Expat
Files: debian/patches/Improve-message-about-PyQt5.patch
Copyright: 2020 Tristan Seligmann <mithrandi@debian.org>
License: GPL-3+
https://sources.debian.org/src/electrum/4.5.4%2Bdfsg-1/debian/copyright/
On Friday, April 12, 2024 12:10:43 PM MST Richard Laager wrote:
> I've only looked at this situation for a total of five minutes prior to
> writing this email, so take this with a grain of salt. But to help you
> make forward progress...
>
> Upstream seems to use GPL-3+ (not GPL-3). For example:
> https://github.com/fxbois/web-mode/blob/a9d21841224da3295f2dd0a90022f5e435e480
> 46/web-mode.el#L13
> The existing copyright says GPL-2+ (not GPL-2).
>
> On 2024-04-10 23:05, Xiyue Deng wrote:
>
> > 1. whether I can add the new copyright section to cover debian/*, and
>
>
> I think it is pretty typical to have a debian/* section. And if the
> licenses differ (see below), then you would _have_ to have separate
> sections.
>
>
> > 2. whether I should use GPL-2 as when the previous maintainer last
> > worked on this or I can use GPL-3 to match upstream version as well?
>
>
> If that is what you believe applies to the debian files (which is what
> debian/copyright says today), then I would keep it as that. GPL-2+ is,
> of course, compatible with GPL-3+.
>
> So I think you end up with something like this:
>
> Files: *
> License: GPL-3+
> Copyright: fill in the upstream copyright holders
>
> Files: debian/*
> License: GPL-2+
> Copyright: previous maintainer, you
>
> --
> Richard
>
--
Soren Stoutner
soren@debian.org
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