Open source files without copyright holder

[Benjamin Drung]

[ Note the cross-posting... ]

Hi debian-legal,

The COPYING.md file of rdma-core [1] says: "Refer to individual files
for information on the copyright holders." but some files (e.g.
ibacm/man/ibacm.1) do not specify a copyright holder. The copyright
holder grants the user additional rights by putting the code under a
open source license. Is it okay to benefit from these rights without
knowing the copyright holder? How could someone verify that the
copyright claim is correct?

If not, please ensure that every file has specified a copyright holder
(or having a default copyright holder).

[1] https://github.com/linux-rdma/rdma-core/blob/master/COPYING.md

-- 
Benjamin Drung
System Developer
Debian & Ubuntu Developer

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Re: Working with a non-public license

[Ian Jackson]

Justin Gerhardt writes ("Working with a non-public license"):
> I'm a first time package creator and I could use some advice in
> regards to a license. I'm looking to package some proprietary
> software for inclusion in the non-free repo. The software is a
> popular game that is distributed in two parts, a commercially sold
> game client and an openly distributed server. I'm looking only to
> distribute the server part.

This isn't an answer to your question:

Why do you think this is a socially useful thing to do ?  Why should
Debian help this company in this way ?  How does doing this help
Debian's users, or the cause of software freedom, or whatever ?

If you have good answers to these questions then maybe someone will
feel like it's worth helping out...

Ian.