Bug#566220: [PATCH] Clarify "verbatim copy of its copyright and distribution license"
Steve Langasek <steve.langasek@canonical.com> writes:
> Clarify what is meant by "verbatim copy of its copyright and
> distribution license" to be explicit about what Debian has always
> required for this file, to put to rest the silly arguments that this
> should be parsed as "(copyright and distribution) license". If someone
> wants to argue that Policy should *not* require reproducing the
> copyright notices when this is not required by the license, let them
> argue that Policy should be changed rather than wrongly claiming it's
> not a Policy requirement.
Agreed and seconded. I actually lean towards dropping this requirement in
the long run as part of a larger discussion except where the license
requires it (which is most cases, but anyway), but what you have below is
clearly what's being required right now, so while we have the larger
discussion, we should document the current state.
> diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
> index 76ac0d4..aea4358 100644
> --- a/policy.sgml
> +++ b/policy.sgml
> @@ -570,7 +570,7 @@
>
> <p>
> Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of
> - its copyright and distribution license in the file
> + its copyright notices and distribution license in the file
> <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
> (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details).
> </p>
> @@ -1639,7 +1639,7 @@
> <heading>Copyright: <file>debian/copyright</file></heading>
> <p>
> Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of
> - its copyright and distribution license in the file
> + its copyright notices and distribution license in the file
> <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
> (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details). Also see
> <ref id="pkgcopyright"> for further considerations related
> @@ -9108,7 +9108,7 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
>
> <p>
> Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
> - copyright and distribution license in the file
> + copyright notices and distribution license in the file
> <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>. This
> file must neither be compressed nor be a symbolic link.
> </p>
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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