Bug#883950: Next steps on "[GPL-3+]" proposal

[Paul Hardy <unifoundry@gmail.com>]

Just a couple of random thoughts...

There are two recurring themes (among others) in this bug report:

* How to make sure users know what "+" means, as in "GPL-2+"

* How to make sure users know where to find a full license

Suppose a tiny README file (uncompressed) is added to
/usr/share/common-licenses.  It can explain what the "+" in "GPL-2+"
etc. mean, and even contain a pointer to the copyright-1.0 document.

As for making it easy for a user find the license file, would it be
too complicated to use a standard URI in d/copyright?

So for example a d/copyright file could contain:

     License: GPL-2
      file:///usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2

or

     License: GPL-2+
      file:///usr/share/common-licenses/README
      file:///usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2

where the README file explains the "+" in "GPL-2+".  It would be
improbable for a user to see a URI like that and not realize that it
points to a specific file location on the system.

Thanks,


Paul Hardy