On Saturday, December 28, 2019 10:14:21 AM EST Thorsten Alteholz wrote:
> Hi Sean,
>
> On Sat, 28 Dec 2019, Sean Whitton wrote:
> > For packages with simple copyright and licensing, machine readable
> > copyright files can take longer to write than a freeform copyright file.
>
> this discussion started with possible stuff to reduce the time for NEW
> reviews.
> If I look at dgit, why do I need to read sentences like "This is a dummy
> package containing only Debian metadata" in the copyright file? I
> also don't have to be told that GPL is comaptible with GPLv3.
> During the time I need to read such freeform prose to understand the
> copyright situation, I could check several machine-readable files where I
> can capture all important information at first view.
>
> Thorsten
The same information could be included in the machine readable format as
comments. It's not the format per se that helps, it's how the maintainer
organizes the information.
Also, personally, I find understanding what debian/copyright says is a trivial
effort compared to understanding what copyright/licenses actually apply to the
package.
Scott K