Bug#737559: copyright-format: author != copyright, add an author field?
On 03/02/14 20:55, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Daniel Pocock wrote:
>
>> I've only come across one package which included public-domain material
>> so far. In this case, I put a note about the author in the comments.
>
> Yep - that works, too.
>
> [...]
>> One risk of not having this extra field is that we could accumulate
>> excessive things in the Copyright field. E.g. some packagers may be
>> including the names of contributors as if they are copyright holders
>> because they are afraid their package will be queried (and subsequently
>> delayed) by the FTP masters if they left something out by mistake.
>
> Hm. copyright-format already says
>
> one or more free-form copyright statements.
> [...]
> The Copyright field collects all relevant copyright notices
> for the files of this paragraph.
>
> It doesn't say anything about listing authors. It actually looks
> pretty clear.
I agree it is reasonably clear
While it is not Debian's fault and there is nothing we can do about it,
there are upstreams who mix and match authors and copyright holders in
their notices and there are others who consistently include the correct
copyright notice in every file.
Sometimes they distribute an AUTHORS file and in some cases, the people
named in that file are entitled to be named in the Copyright field. In
other cases, the people in the AUTHORS file or whatever have waived or
assigned their rights. In the best cases these things are explained.
The paragraph you quote above could well go on to say "Not every author
or contributor is a copyright holder. Only those listed in a Copyright
line in the source should be included in the Copyright field. Names
mentioned in an authors or contributors file or committers on the
repository may not be copyright holders if there is an explicit
copyright statement present. In the absence of an explicit copyright
statement, those alternative mechanisms may be useful for ascertaining
copyright."
> Maybe some ftp-master related documentation needs an update (e.g.,
> perhaps the chain of links
>
> https://ftp-master.debian.org/
> -> REJECT-FAQ
> -> "this mail" <87u09lawkj.fsf@vorlon.ganneff.de>
>
> has been misleading people). In that case, I suspect a fix to
> bug#678607 (clarifying that there is no need for debian/copyright to
> list who wrote each line of code) would help. I don't think adding
> extra fields would save people from this source of worry.
Adding the fields alone doesn't resolve the problem
It is a communication issue and little things like this can help - I
make no claim that this is some silver bullet and that if this field is
added every copyright listing will become perfect
There are cases where I would have used it and I believe that
recognising people's work (even if they have assigned their rights) is
an important way of showing our thanks and acknowledgment to those who
develop free software, and having a dedicated field makes them stand out
just that little bit more.
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