Bug#768292: debian-policy: please allow copyright file to refer to license text in separate files

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Simon McVittie wrote:

> Some packages currently have stanzas like this in their copyright files:
>
>     License: MPL-2.0
>      The complete text of the Mozilla Public License 2.0 can be found in
>      the `MPL-2.0' file in the same directory as this file.
>
> It is not clear to me whether Debian Policy allows this.

It doesn't.

>                                                          I would like it
> to be specifically allowed, unless there is some good reason not to;

If there were some standardized machine-readable way to indicate which
files the copyright file refers to, and if we update tools such as the
changelog link on p.d.o to ensure that the files the copyright file
refers to are available, too, then I would very much like this change.

Until then, it seems like a bad idea.

Thanks,
Jonathan