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

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Russ Allbery wrote:

> 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.
>
> The last part is not at all clear.  Prior to a recent conversation on
> debian-mentors, I had always assumed that this meant the legal authors,

Right.  That interpretation would render the requirement redundant
next to the need for copyright information, so I don't like it very
much.  (Maybe I'm in the minority, though?)

Here's a strawman illustrating what I think the sentence meant to say.

diff --git i/policy.sgml w/policy.sgml
index 52dbb26a..adb0c1c4 100644
--- i/policy.sgml
+++ w/policy.sgml
@@ -9873,8 +9873,15 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
 
 	<p>
 	  In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream
-	  sources (if any) were obtained, and should name the original
-	  authors.
+	  sources (if any) were obtained, and should include a name or
+	  contact address for the upstream authors.<footnote>
+	    <p>
+	      This can be the name of an individual or an organization,
+	      an email address, a web forum or bugtracker, or any other
+	      means to unambiguously identify who to contact to
+	      participate in the development of the upstream source code.
+	    </p>
+	  </footnote>
 	</p>
 
 	<p>