Bug#633994: debian-policy: confusion over what the license information in the copyright file actually means

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Nicholas Bamber wrote:

> The package maintainer wants the following stanza
>
> Copyright: (C) 1995-1998, 2000, 2003-2008  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> License: GFDL-1.1+
>  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
>  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
>  any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
[...]
>  On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU Free Documentation License
>  version 1.2 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GFDL-1.2'.

Ah, that makes more sense than what I was imagining.  It contains the
upstream license notice (which is "GFDL-1.1 or any later version")
plus a friendly pointer to the full text of one of the permitted
versions.

One interpretation of "verbatim" would mean that if the .orig.tar.gz
contains a copy of the GFDL-1.1 and not 1.2, then the copyright file
should include it (either quoting it inline or by reference to
/usr/share/common-licenses if possible).  I would be happier that
could be avoided.  Maybe §12.5 "Copyright information" could use some
text addressing this case of license upgrades explicitly.

Thanks for clarifying.
Jonathan