Re: Parseable copyright files (was: Re: Bug#65577: PROPOSED] README.Debian should include notice if a package is not a part of Debian distribution)
On Mon, Jun 19, 2000 at 11:03:43AM -0700, Chris Waters wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 19, 2000 at 12:15:49PM +0100, Julian Gilbey wrote:
>
> > I would suggest a file with fields like the control files, something
> > like (comments with #'s):
>
> > Package: foo
> > Debianized-By: Debian Maintainer <dm@debian.org>
> > Debianized-When: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 12:09:09 +0100 # output of 822-date
> > Copyright: GPL
>
> The GPL isn't a copyright, it's a license. We need to list the
> copyright holder as *well* as the license. If we were to do this
> (which I'm not sure is a good idea), we should at least name the
> fields sensibly:
Fair enough.
> Copyright: Joe Programmer and Bob Hacker, 1996-1999
> License: GPL
> License-details: see /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL
>
> > Copyright-non-freeness: # Brief details of non-freeness here
>
> Again, "License-non-freeness:".
Agreed.
> The last time a similar suggestion was made, it was pointed out that
>
> a) there can be a lot of ways that packages can violate the DFSG
> b) we're not in the business of supporting non-free.
So allow people to say "read the license" ;-)
> The idea of listing the reasons for non-freeness was rejected as being
> too much work for stuff we don't care about. I'd add, on top of that,
> that rewriting 6000 copyright files (for main+contrib+non-free) is a
> HUGE amount of work. I don't think the reasons I've seen posted here
> are sufficient to justify the amount of work required.
>
> I'm not opposing the idea, just raising some quibbles and doubts.
It seems that the primary reason suggested for rewriting the copyright
files was independent of the freeness issue: it was to make them
machine parseable so that they could be automatically tested for
missing information. The non-freeness bit was a little extra thing.
Oh, and I forgot a field:
Upstream-URL: http://www.get.from.here/this/directory
Julian
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Julian Gilbey, Dept of Maths, QMW, Univ. of London. J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk
Debian GNU/Linux Developer, see http://www.debian.org/~jdg
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