Bug#678607: debian-policy: "original authors" in 12.5 is unclear

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 12:39:31AM -0700, Russ Allbery a écrit :
> 
> Policy 12.5 says:
> 
>     In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream sources
>     (if any) were obtained, and should name the original authors.

Dear all,

given that

 1) New packages that do not name the original authors (as opposed to the
    copyright holders) in their Debian copyright file are accepted routinely
    in our archives, and

 2) Once in our archive, it is very rare that they get a bug opened requiring to
    correct that fact or at least document the reason for breaking a "should"
    recommendation, and

 3) The "must", "may", and "should" words in the Policy are a mixture of
    normative and non-normative uses, in particular for the older sections,

I think that it would be fair to align the Policy on the current practice and
clarify that naming the original authors, while not discouraged, is not required,
or simply delete this portion.

My personal opinion is that it is best to focus the Debian copyright file
on the goal of respecting licenses and the copyright law, and to leave
to the upstream documentation the difficult task of stating who is author
and who is not.

Have a nice week-end,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan