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

[Bart Martens <bartm@debian.org>]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 07:50:41PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> 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>

I understand that there is confusion about the term "original authors".

Some readers may argue that "original authors" means only the "authors" who
"originally" worked on the software without the "current authors" who may have
taken over upstream maintenance at a later time.  I personally understand
"original authors" as all "upstream authors" as in "upstream to Debian" so
including every "author" who ever worked on the "upstream" software.

Some readers may argue that an "upstream contact" may not be an "author" if
he/she maintains the upstream software only by accepting patches created by
others.  I suggest to not use the term "author" if we mean "contact".

I think that it is OK to replace "original authors" by "upstream contact".  I
think that this is more or less what Jonathan Nieder meant.

Regards,

Bart Martens