Harry Rickards <harry@linux.com> writes:
When the package was first uploaded, Gerkan said I could remove all
the debian/changelog entries by him.
You shouldn't do that; the historical changelog entries show how the
package got to its current state. Regardless of the license
restrictions, this information is useful and should not be discarded
without good reason (and I've never known a good reason to do so).
The debian/copyright still lists him as debianizing the package, and
licenses the packaging to him (under GPLv3).
The GPLv3 requires a record of when the work was changed:
5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.
[…]
a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified
it, and giving a relevant date.
The conventional wisdom is that the best way to satisfy this is to
maintain and preserve a changelog with the work. Removing old changelog
entries would violate the license terms received from the copyright
holders in those changes.
If I leave the bit listing him as origionally debianizing the package
and copyright the packaging to me, saying I origionally based the
package on his package, would that conform to GPLv3 and Debian Policy?
I think the Debian package changelog is the simplest way to record that
history.
As for copyright license, you need to make clear the license terms in
the ‘copyright’ file. I'm no longer convinced that copyright *notices*
need to be duplicated in the ‘copyright’ file, but you'll find different
opinions on that within the Debian project.