Re: Copyright of composite Makefile.in files

[Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I am not a mentor, the following is just my opinions:

I think if possible, Makefile.in should not be included in tarball,
since dh_autoreconf will re-generate it at build-time anyway. But I
think it is fine to keep it if the upstream tarball provides it since
it does not worth repacking the tarball just to remove generated
files.

I don't know how Makefile.in is being handled in particular, but I
think in general, if one file has more than one copyright notice, then
we should use `and` to connect compatible licenses and add all authors
(or organizations) as copyright-holders.

So, in this case I would suggest the following:

Files: */Makefile.in
Copyright: 1994-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
               2004 Oren Ben-Kiki
License: FSF-unlimited

Of course, one should always follow
<https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/>
if possible.

Cheers,
Alex

On 30/11/2015, Ferenc Wagner <wferi@niif.hu> wrote:
> Dear mentors,
>
> Makefile.in files distributed in an upstream tarball often have several
> copyright notices: the FSF copyleft at the top added by Automake and
> later those carried over from other macro packages included into
> Makefile.am (for example: include doxygen.am).  The result is like this:
>
>
> # Makefile.in generated by automake 1.15 from Makefile.am.
> # @configure_input@
>
> # Copyright (C) 1994-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>
> # This Makefile.in is free software; the Free Software Foundation
> # gives unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it,
> # with or without modifications, as long as this notice is preserved.
>
> # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without
> # even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
> # PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
>
> @SET_MAKE@
>
> # Copyright (C) 2004 Oren Ben-Kiki
> # This file is distributed under the same terms as the Automake macro
> files.
> [...]
>
>
> In debian/copyright I have the following paragraphs:
>
>
> Files: */Makefile.in
> Copyright: 1994-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> License: FSF-unlimited
>
> Files: doxygen.am
> Copyright: 2004 Oren Ben-Kiki
> License: FSF-unlimited
>
>
> Shall I note that ./Makefile.in includes ./doxygen.am and thus carries
> both copyright notices?
> --
> Thanks,
> Feri.
>
>