On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 04:40:33PM +0000, Sune Vuorela wrote:
> After a discussion on #debian-mentors and other places, I will not
> sponsor packages using the copyright file format described on
> http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat
I like the format, and I will only sponsor NEW packages using this format,
because it makes checking the license terms much easier, and because it
is easier to read.
An exception is for packages which are otherwise perfect during my
initial review (see multiget), because the better you are the more
freedom you get. [I did not sponsor anything else, so this rule has
not been not applied yet].
> It is a too complex, overengineered solution to a very minor issue.
Well, maybe it should be allowed to be a little bit less exact about
the copyright holders of the files, and just require different Files
sections for different licenses, eg. (the UK+US example)
Files: UK
Copyright: © 2009 Joe Bloggs <joe@bloggs.bloggs>
License: GPL-3+
Files: US
Copyright: © 2009 John Doe <john@doe.doe>
License: GPL-3+
could be turned into:
Files: US, UK
Copyright: © 2009 Joe Bloggs <joe@bloggs.bloggs>
© 2009 John Doe <john@doe.doe>
License: GPL-3+
> It is not easy readables for humans
> It is ugly
It's easier to read than free form text, because you know where you have
to look. And you can write programs to make it even easier, and an
XML format would be ugly, but this one?
> Too time consuming to write and check
For big packages, yes. But checking does not require more time than
with the old format, sometimes even less.
> No real gain.
You can write a program checking your copyright files and validating it
against the source code. And checking it is in fact easier, at least if
you have a program (lintian could read debian/copyright and validate the
files, printing warnings for excluded or wrong files).
--
Julian Andres Klode - Free Software Developer
Debian Developer - Contributing Member of SPI
Ubuntu Member - Fellow of FSFE
Website: http://jak-linux.org/ XMPP: juliank@jabber.org
Debian: http://www.debian.org/ SPI: http://www.spi-inc.org/
Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/ FSFE: http://www.fsfe.org/
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature